WASHINGTON - The US International Trade Commission (USITC) decided Thursday to maintain the existing antidumping duty orders on carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings from China and some other markets.

Revoking the current antidumping duty orders on these pipe fittings from China, China's Taiwan, Brazil, Japan and Thailand would likely lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time, the commission said in a statement.

As a result, the USITC concluded that the existing orders on imports of these products from those markets will remain in place, according to the statement.

The USITC's action came under a five-year review process required by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, which stipulates that the US Commerce Department should revoke an antidumping or countervailing duty order or terminate a suspension agreement after five years.

However, the stipulation does not apply should the Commerce Department and the USITC determine that revoking the order or terminating the suspension agreement is likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping, subsidies or material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.

The five-year reviews concerning carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings from those markets were instituted in October 2010, and the USITC voted to conduct full reviews in January this year.

With respect to China, the United States' existing antidumping duties on imports of carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings range from 35.06 percent to 182.90 percent.

As the US economy is reviving at a near-jobless recovery pace, protectionist moves by the United States are on the rise.

China has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the abuse of trade remedies and stressed that such discriminative measures are hazardous to the development of China-US trade.

The United States, the Chinese Commerce Ministry has stressed, should get rid of its bias and give Chinese enterprises "equal and fair treatment."

In a January visit to Washington, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said China is willing to work with the United States to tackle their trade imbalance through communication and cooperation "in an atmosphere of mutual trust and equality."