A panel of experts set up by WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body ruled the tariffs “inconsistent” with global trade rules, and recommended that the US “bring its measures into conformity with its obligations”.

The panel was created in January last year to review US President Donald Trump’s decision to hit China with tariffs on a quarter of a trillion dollars’ worth of goods.

The tariffs imposed in 2018 marked the beginning of the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

China’s representative told the organisation at the time that the tariffs imposed were “a blatant breach of the US’ obligations under the WTO agreements and is posing a systemic challenge to the multilateral trading system”.

Washington has meanwhile slammed China’s complaint as “entirely hypocritical”, pointing to the “discriminatory duties on over US$100 billion in US exports” imposed in parallel by China.

Tuesday’s announcement marks one of the first in a series of anticipated panel rulings over complaints filed by a long line of countries over Trump’s decision to slap them with steep tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.