China rejected Wednesday US accusations of unfair export subsidies and called against American contervailing duties on various imports from China.

"Let me be clear: there are no prohibitive subsidies handed down by the Chinese central government," commerce minister Chen Deming said at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the parliament.

The remark was a response to a US bill passed by the Congress to allow the Department of Commerce to continue to impose countervailing duties on imports from China and Vietnam.

The American bill came after a US Federal Court ruled on December 19, 2011, that the US Commerce Department does not have the legal authority to impose countervailing duties on goods from non-market economy countries.

The court explained that government payments cannot be characterized as "subsidies" in an non-market economy context, saying the Obama administration lacked legal ground to impose a three-year tariff on imports of low-grade Chinese tires in September 2009.

Both the US House and the Senate acted quickly after the hearing to introduce a bill to remedy the Tariff Act of 1930 and overturn the Federal Court's decision.

Such US Congress rules and Commerce Department moves were out of line with  international rules, as well as US laws, Chen said.

The World Trade Organization rules divide government subsidies into prohibitive subsidies and actionable ones, with most WTO members handing down subsidies of different types, the minister explained.

China's central government is not handing out any prohibitive subsidies, Chen said. "If any local (government) has subsidies, we are willing to talk about this."

Since the onset of the global financial crisis, many countries have granted subsidies to their domestic companies, particularly the United States which have subsidized automobile companies in the form of bailouts.

However, China did not come up with new subsidies in response to an appeal by the Group of 20, nor did China launch massive countervailing measures against such subsidies by other countries, Chen said.

"I hope the countries, departments and law enforcement units that accuse others of breaking rules and handing out subsidies can be strict with themselves and correct their own mistakes."

Political reasons in US move

The United States has "political reasons" for passing the bill, said former Chinese trade officials, who called on the government to take a tough stance and fight against the policy.

As the US presidential election draws near, "the US is trying all means to gain votes by making these issues with China into political issues", said Sun Zhenyu, former ambassador to the World Trade Organization.

"The US move is pure trade protectionism," said Zhang Zhigang, director of the Council of China Foreign Trade and also a former vice-minister of commerce.

"China should strongly oppose it and retaliate.

"It's unfair that the US did not recognize China's market economy status when China entered the WTO in 2001. And it is absolutely unreasonable if the largest economy in the world plans to charge countervailing duties on Chinese exports when the US doesn't recognize China's market-economy status."

Experts said the trade frictions between China and the US are expected to increase throughout the year, especially as the election campaign heats up.

Last week, Obama signed an executive order establishing the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center to investigate whether China and other US trade partners "play by the rules".

Since November 2006, the US has undertaken 30 countervailing duty probes against Chinese products, according to US figures.

The Club for Growth, an anti-tax advocacy group based in Washington, expressed opposition to the bill, saying "these duties restrict economic liberty and are anti-growth.

"We strongly urge members of Congress to defeat this proposal."