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China hits back at U.S. steel pipe decision
A labourer prepares to transport steel pipes at a steel market in Changzhi, Shanxi province December 31, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer
BEIJING |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday decried a U.S. decision to impose duties of 10 to 16 percent on Chinese-made steel pipe, the biggest U.S. trade case to date against China, and said it had been made a scapegoat of protectionist interests.
The Ministry of Commerce said it was "strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposed" to the vote of the U.S. International Trade Commission for countervailing duties, which Washington said were needed to balance out unfair state subsidies to Chinese makers of pipes for oil wells.
The global financial crisis and fall in demand for oil, not Chinese policies, were to blame for pressures on U.S. manufacturers, said a statement issued on the ministry's website (www.mofcom.gov.cn).
"U.S. domestic industry has been seeking opportunities to win trade relief and protection, and shifted the blame for its hardships onto imports," an unnamed ministry official said in the statement. "Finding that Chinese oil well pipes have damaged U.S. industry is a mistaken step that ignores the facts."
The ministry made no mention of any tit-for-tat moves against U.S. products, but these cannot be ruled out. It urged Washington to abandon the decision at a final vote on the anti-dumping case in May.
But a lawyer representing the United Steelworkers union and U.S. companies in the case earlier told Reuters that hearing is virtually certain to also approve separate anti-dumping duties on the pipes.
The ITC vote capped a year of U.S.-China trade friction likely to extend into 2010.
U.S. companies and unions brought about a dozen trade cases against China this year, alleging government subsidies and unfair pricing practices.
President Barack Obama also angered Beijing in September by slapping a 35 percent duty on imports of about $1.85 billion of Chinese-made tires in response to what the ITC said was a surge in imports that disrupted the market.
China, in response, accused the United States of protectionism, filed a complaint against the tires decision at the World Trade Organization and began a probe into whether U.S. autos are "dumped" in China at unfairly low prices.
The United States imported $2.74 billion of "oil country tubular goods" from China in 2008, more than triple the previous year, as rises in oil prices led to increased demand for the oil well tubing and casing.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ron Popeski.)
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It means a more level field upon which to compete, and the beginnings of the end to the mercantilism being practiced by trading competitors like China, in the global steel industry, and better yet, global manufacturing.
It is not “protectionism” when countries are held accountable for the agreements and obligations they freely entered into to have access to the USA and Worlds markets!!!!!!!! Chalk up another important victory for “RULES BASED FEEE TRADE”!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is no more acceptable for consumers of anything to benefit from cheaper prices because they were sold off the back of a thieves truck, than they are to buy manufactured goods from China at lower prices because they ignore the rules and laws of global trade. It is called trade mercantilism and is predatory by design in its pricing practices. it is exactly why rules based free trade came into existence and was supposed to stop. However, free trade has become grossly distorted over the last 20 years, and has directly caused the destruction of our middle class, because it has failed to stop trade mercantilism.
Why? Because until recently the world and the US in particular has turned a blind eye to the proper enforcement of rules based free trade. The extremes that the Chinese have gone to has created a huge backlash all around the world, not just here in the US. In fact we are the last country to imposed these penalties on them for their illegal trade in steel pipe. The EU, Canada, Mexico, South America, and others, including the Russians have already imposed heavy duties on Chinese steel pipe for the same reasons we are.
So i say to all those who cry foul on this issue–please become better informed and less blindly biased against the enforcement of the rules the Chinese and others have agreed to abide by to have access to our and the worlds markets.WTO rules clearly state that government subsidies that are designed to promote exporting are illegal and that includes the massive currency manipulation practiced to extremes by the Chinese government. Rules based Free Trade must carry the day or all countries and their citizens will lose their trust in our global trading system. That will be a tragedy that no one will recover from. So become educated–stop distorting the facts and support global trade that is rules based and enforced and free of trade distorting practices like mercantilism.
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