Shares of mainland wind power equipment and parts makers continued to fall yesterday after getting entangled in a Sino-US trade dispute that saw China abandon subsidies to producers using mainland-made components instead of imports.
Announcing its success late on Tuesday, the Office of the US Trade Representative criticised China for failing in its duty to notify the World Trade Organisation of all of its industry subsidy programmes.
'The lack of transparency hinders the efforts of WTO members to collectively ensure that each government is playing by the rules,' the office said.
Beijing submitted only one subsidy notification since becoming a WTO member in 2001, which was more than five years ago and that too was incomplete, the office said.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce did not respond to faxed questions seeking comments on the office's charges and China's decision to roll back the subsidies.
The US trade office said China agreed to stop providing grants to mainland wind turbine makers, which were using key parts made in China rather than importing them, after the office began an investigation in December following a petition filed by the United Steelworkers Union.
The US estimated that several hundred million US dollars of such subsidies had been doled out since 2008, when the 'Special Fund for Wind Power Equipment Manufacturing' was established.
