BEIJING - CHINA said it was opposed to protectionism and respected global trading rules, reacting to a US and Mexican complaint about its trade practices filed at the World Trade Organisation.

China also said it would use WTO rules to address the request by the two countries to seek dispute settlement consultations on export subsidy measures allegedly giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage.

'The Chinese side has always respected WTO rules and opposed trade protectionism,' the commerce ministry said on its website.

Washington's decision to haul China to the WTO came after analysis of dozens of Chinese promotion programmes, Trade Representative Susan Schwab's office said on Friday.

The United States, Ms Schwab said, was concerned that the Chinese programmes appeared to incorporate export subsidies and 'protectionist industrial policy.'

She said the United States would use 'all resources available to fight industrial policies that aim to unfairly promote Chinese-branded products' at the expense of US interests.

Following the settlement consultations request, both parties would have 60 days to resolve the dispute between them.

If no resolution is reached, WTO arbitrators would then be asked to make a ruling which could be appealed by either side.

Last week, China lost an appeal against a WTO ruling that its tariffs on car part imports violated global trade rules, a complaint initially lodged by the United States, Canada and the European Union. -- AFP