US may intensify trade probes in 2013: report

The United States is likely to intensify anti-dumping and countervailing investigations into exports from Asian emerging economies as the world's largest economy is mired in debt-ceiling negotiations and in a slow economic recovery, the People's Daily reported.

The country's anti-dumping investigations against the Chinese mainland accounted for 12 percent of the US' total anti-dumping probes in 1999 and 57 percent in 2009, while countervailing probes against the Chinese mainland increased from zero to 67 percent of US total countervailing investigations in the same period, the newspaper said citing data from the US International Trade Commission.

The Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries filed petitions on Dec 28 seeking countervailing duties — duties imposed to offset subsidies by foreign governments — on shrimp from China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The US was China's second-largest trade partner, the biggest export destination and the fifth import source in 2012.