HURTING BILATERAL TRADE RELATIONS

    The ruling came at a time when the China-U.S relationship is at the beginning of a new era.

    While the two countries have grown increasingly dependent on each other in economy, trade disputes also increase.

    In a separate case, the U.S. Commerce Department issued a preliminary decision on Wednesday to impose duties ranging from 10.9 percent to 30.6 percent on steel pipe imports from China.

    The sanction against Chinese tire exports to the U.S. market "will cause a lose-lose situation on both countries," said Mary Xu, deputy secretary general of the China Rubber Industry Association. "It is opposed by both sides."

    On the U.S. side, the tariffs were strongly opposed by U.S. tire distributors and retailers, who said the restrictions would raise prices, hurting cash-strapped consumers.

    "Tariffs will not create manufacturing jobs in the United States," said Jim Mayfield, president of Del-Nat Tire Corp., which sells private-label tires, including Chinese-made imports.

    Mayfield said for the past 15 years, major U.S. producers had focused on higher profits and better performing tires instead of what industry insiders call "tier three tires" that service lower end and second-hand automobiles.

    With tariffs imposed, "prices will go up for American consumers and choices will go down," a Washington Post report said on Friday," Consumers who can least afford it would pay the most."

    The Chinese government also spoke strongly against the tariffs.

    "We hope the U.S. government will refrain from taking action, for the long-term healthy and stable development of U.S.-Chinese relations," Deputy Commerce Minister Fu Ziying said last month.

    Some economists warned that the protectionist move by the Obama administration will ultimately hurt the U.S.-China trade relations that are becoming more and more important due to the global financial crisis.

    "The U.S. must stop taking decisions against China, even small ones, without putting forth an explicit trade policy, which we have thus far failed to do," Derek Scissors, a research fellow at the Heritage foundation's Asian Studies Center told Xinhua.