Nov. 6--BEIJING -- China on Friday denounced a U.S. preliminary decision to slap antidumping duties on imports of Chinese-made steel pipes, requesting that Washington maintain "free trade and nondiscriminatory principles" with China.

Vice Commerce Minister Yi Xiaozhun said the United States employs "double standards" on Chinese manufacturers instead of heeding universally recognized trade rules under the World Trade Organization.

"We hope that the United States can uphold free trade and nondiscriminatory principles," Yi said at a news conference. "All these are universally recognized rules under the WTO." "China is greatly concerned. And for many times we have asked the United States to seek proper treatment of this issue, but so far it has not been done (so)," he said.

The U.S. Commerce Department issued a preliminary ruling Thursday that Chinese producers were dumping pipes used by the oil and gas industry and would impose duties of up to 99.14 percent.

The move came ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to China from Nov. 15 to 18.

In September, Obama decided to impose a tariff on rapidly increasing imports of tires from China, the first such move to be taken by his administration against the country.

The Commerce Department in October launched investigation in the steel pipe case after accepting a petition filed by U.S. Steel, V&M Star LP, TMK IPSCO and the United Steelworkers union.

The petitioners sought a 98.37 percent antidumping duty to offset what they allege to be unfairly low prices for Chinese-made steel pipes sold in the United States.

According to the department, imports of steel pipes from China shot up nearly 132 percent by volume from 2006 to 2008 to an estimated $382 million.

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