THE Ministry of Commerce said Thursday that the European Union’s new trade rules against Chinese imports lacked awareness of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, urging the EU to abide by those requirements.

Ministry spokesperson Gao Feng made the remarks at a regular briefing in Beijing.

The European Union agreed to rules last week to guard against lower-priced Chinese imports, ending 18 months of wrangling over trade ties with China.

When asked about the United States deferring a decision on anti-dumping tariffs on imports of Chinese aluminum foil and China’s non-market economy status, Gao said the phrase non-market economy showed “Cold War” thinking.

The concept of non-market economy countries does not exist in WTO rules and has only been adopted by some of the organization’s individual members, Gao said.

The U.S. Commerce Department in August imposed preliminary countervailing duties of about 17 percent to 81 percent on imports of Chinese aluminum foil. The U.S. agency will rule on the anti-dumping tariffs and whether to declare China a non-market economy Nov. 30.

China will report preliminary data for its September aluminum exports Friday. Exports of the metal have been slipping in recent months, partly because of the U.S. measures, analysts say. (SD-Agencies)