BEIJING - China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Saturday expressed strong dissatisfaction with the US opposition to granting it market economy status in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"China is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposes US rejection to giving China market economy status in the WTO," the MOC said in a statement.

The Office of the US Trade Representative told Xinhua Friday that the United States had submitted the statement of opposition to the WTO as a third-party brief in support of the European Union (EU).

The US submission came against the backdrop of the expiry in December 2016 of the Article 15 of the Protocol on China's accession to the WTO, which allowed the EU to regard China as a Non-Market Economy and use a "surrogate country approach" in its anti-dumping investigations against China.