GENEVA (Reuters) - China told the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday it wanted to impose $7 billion a year in sanctions on the United States in retaliation for Washington’s non-compliance with a ruling in a dispute over U.S. dumping duties. FILE PHOTO: A worker places U.S. and China flags near the Forbidden City ahead of a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing, in Beijing, China November 8, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo The request for authorization from the WTO to introduce the sanctions is likely to lead to years of legal wrangling over the case for the penalty and the amount. China initiated the dispute in 2013, complaining about U.S. dumping duties on several industries including machinery and electronics, light industry, metals and minerals, with an annual export value of up to $8.4 billion at the time. China’s request for authorization, published by the WTO, said the latest available data showed it had suffered $7.043 billion in damages annually, and therefore it requested permission to raise trade barriers on U.S. goods to the same amount, as allowed under WTO rules. China won a WTO ruling in the dispute in 2016, and that judgment was confirmed by an appeal last year. The case concerned the U.S. Commerce Department’s way of calculating the amount of “dumping” - Chinese exports that are priced to undercut American-made goods on the U.S. market. The U.S. calculation method, known as “zeroing”, tended to increase the level of U.S. anti-dumping duties on foreign producers and was repeatedly ruled to be illegal in a series of trade disputes brought to the WTO. The string of U.S. defeats fueled U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to reform the WTO. Trump said last month the United States could withdraw from the WTO if “they don’t shape up”. China told the WTO last month that the deadline for the United States to comply with the ruling expired on Aug. 22. The WTO published an agenda on Tuesday for a meeting of its dispute settlement body on Sept. 21, showing China planned to take the legal step of asking for authorization for sanctions.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering sanctions against Chinese senior officials and companies to punish Beijing’s detention of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uighurs and other minority Muslims in large internment camps, according to current and former American officials. The economic penalties would be one of the first times the Trump administration has taken action against China because of human rights violations. United States officials are also seeking to limit American sales of surveillance technology that Chinese security agencies and companies are using to monitor Uighurs throughout northwest China. Discussions to rebuke China for its treatment of its minority Muslims have been underway for months among officials at the White House and the Treasury and State Departments. But they gained urgency two weeks ago, after members of Congress asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to impose sanctions on seven Chinese officials. Until now, President Trump has largely resisted punishing China for its human rights record, or even accusing it of widespread violations. If approved, the penalties would fuel an already bitter standoff with Beijing over trade and pressure on North Korea’s nuclear program.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Tuesday expressed deep concern over China’s “worsening crackdown” on minority Muslims in the Xinjiang region, as the Trump administration considered sanctions against Chinese senior officials and companies linked to allegations of human rights abuses. Discussions have gained momentum within the U.S. government over possible economic penalties in response to reports of mass detentions of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims, which has prompted a growing international outcry, U.S. congressional sources said. Any sanctions decision would be a rare move on human rights grounds by the Trump administration against China, with which it is engaged in a trade war while also seeking Beijing’s help to resolve a standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons. A U.S. official said the idea of sanctions was still in the discussion stage, and one of the congressional sources said a decision did not appear to be imminent. “We’re deeply troubled by the worsening crackdown, not just on Uighurs (but also) Kazakhs, other Muslims in that region of China,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a news briefing, renewing concerns expressed in recent months by top administration officials. Nauert acknowledged that the State Department had received a letter from a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers at the end of August asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to impose sanctions on a number of Chinese officials accused of overseeing the policies. Those included Chen Quanguo, Communist Party chief in Xinjiang and also a member of the Party’s politburo. Also under consideration are sanctions the lawmakers sought against several Chinese companies involved in building detention camps and creating surveillance systems used to track and monitor Uighurs, according to one of the congressional sources. Nauert declined to discuss details of any U.S. government action. “We’re not going to preview any sanctions that may or may not happen,” Nauert said. The Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project tweeted a photo of activist Dolkun Isa, president of World Uyghur Congress, at the White House on Monday along with the comment, “A meeting with White House officials today provided much-needed encouragement for Uyghur human-rights advocates.” Isa, speaking to Reuters by telephone from Brussels, where he said he was due to meet EU officials on Wednesday, declined to say which White House officials he had met in Washington. Isa said he had the impression from the Americans that “they are seriously considering” imposing sanctions on senior Chinese officials, including Chen, the Party chief in the far western region. China earlier on Tuesday called for United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet to respect its sovereignty after she urged Beijing to allow monitors into the region and expressed concern about the situation there. Beijing has said Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists who plot attacks and stir up tension between the mostly Muslim Uighur minority who call the region home and members of the ethnic Han Chinese majority. Last month, a U.N. rights panel said it had received credible reports that up to one million ethnic Uighurs may be held in extra-legal detention in Xinjiang, and called for them to be freed. “There are credible reports out there that many, many thousands have been detained in detention centers since April 2017, and the numbers are fairly significant from what we can tell so far,” Nauert said. U.S. sanctions could be imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, a federal law that allows the U.S. government to target human rights violators around the world with freezes on any U.S. assets, U.S. travel bans, and prohibitions on Americans doing business with them.<doc-sep>
FILE PHOTO - U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) asks a question of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during Pompeo's appearance before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing titled "An Update on American Diplomacy to Advance Our National Security Strategy" on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican leaders of a U.S. congressional commission on China urged President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday to broaden sanctions on Chinese officials over its treatment of minority Muslims in the Xinjiang region. In a letter on Wednesday, Senator Marco Rubio, chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and Representative Chris Smith, the co-chairman, asked Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to expand the list of Chinese entities barred from purchasing equipment that could be used for surveillance. “Given the national integration of China’s state security apparatus, we believe there should ... be a presumption of denial for any sale of technology or equipment that would make a direct and significant contribution to the police surveillance and detection system (in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region),” Rubio and Smith said. The U.S. State Department on Tuesday expressed deep concern over China’s “worsening crackdown” on minority Muslims in the Xinjiang region, as the Trump administration considered sanctions against Chinese senior officials and companies linked to allegations of human rights abuses. Discussions have gained momentum within the U.S. government over possible economic penalties in response to reports of mass detentions of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims, which has prompted a growing international outcry.