A U.S. trade panel gave final approval to duties ranging up to more than 400 percent on around $500 million of aluminum products from China used in the car and construction industry.

The move is the latest sign of trade friction between the world's two largest economies, but has been in the works for over a year.

The U.S. International Trade Commission voted 6-0 that anti-dumping and countervailing duties were needed to offset unfairly low prices and Chinese government subsidies.

"Unfair trade has hurt our industry, but the (AD and CVD) orders will enable domestic producers to recover lost business and compete under fair conditions going forward," Duncan Crowdis, head of a coalition of U.S. aluminum extrusion producers that asked last year for import relief.

Those include Bonnell Aluminum where Crowdis is president, Hydro Aluminum North America, Kaiser Aluminum Corp and Sapa Extrusions Inc.

Aluminum extrusions are used in window and door frames and sills, gutters and solar power frames. They are also used to make parts for cars, trucks and boats, in furniture and a variety of other consumer and industrial goods.

The ITC voted 4-2 to exclude finished heat sinks from the duties, but that represents a "very small" portion of the total market, said Stephen Jones, an attorney with King & Spalding who represented the industry group.

The Commerce Department last month announced final anti-dumping duties of about 33 percent on all aluminum extrusion imports from China.

It also set additional final countervailing duties of 8 percent on imports from the Zhongya group of companies, about 10 percent on the Guang Ya group of companies and nearly 375 percent on all other Chinese producers or exporters. (Reuters)