China Negotiates on Two Trade Investigations Recently Launched by the U.S.
(People’s Daily) On Apr. 27, Vice Minister of China’s Ministry of Commerce Zhong Shan met with Dan Piccuta, ChargÉ d’affaires of the Embassy of the United States of America, to negotiate on two trade remedy investigations targeting Chinese-made products that U.S. industries recently filed with the U.S. government.
Zhong said the Chinese government has always valued the China-U.S. economic and trade relations, whose healthy and normal development is in line with the two nation’s long-term interest. However, U.S. industries have recently filed for trade remedy investigations into Chinese-made oil well tubing and tire products. China is paying close attention to the matter, as the cases involved a large sum of money and affected numerous Chinese enterprises.
Zhong stressed that in the current situation in which efforts are being made around the globe to cope with the financial crisis, it is inappropriate to put forward the two applications. If they were improperly handled, serious problems could occur, which would not only be harmful to the settlement of bilateral economic and trade issues between China and the U.S., but also generate a negative impact on the recovery and development of the global economy.
He stated that China’s domestic industries are also facing a huge impact from many products imported from the U.S. and the Chinese government is under huge pressure from its domestic industries. Even if US could exclude Chinese goods from the U.S. market by means of trade remedy measures, the U.S. domestic industries would not necessarily get out of trouble.
China does not want to see intensifying bilateral trade frictions, which is unfavorable to both China and the U.S. It wishes that, from the point of view of the general situation of China-US economic and trade relations, the U.S. would properly handle trade frictions and fight trade protectionism by taking a positive attitude.
Zhong also stressed that the governments of the two countries should handle problems encountered in bilateral economic and trade relations through a closer cooperation. The results achieved from the proper handling of trade frictions by the U.S. as the largest economy in the world and China as the largest developing country will make a great contribution to the world. Industries from the two countries should strengthen their negotiations to solve trade problems in the form of cooperation. The U.S. should not adopt trade remedy measures or apply unfair rules against China as a means to restrict exports of Chinese products.
Piccuta said, the U.S. values the China-US economic and trade relations and believes that the sound development of the China-U.S. economic and trade relations conforms to the long-term interests of the two countries. The U.S. is aware of China’s concern about the cases and is willing to maintain further negotiation and cooperation with China in the investigation procedures and deal with the trade friction in a mature and pragmatic way.
On Apr. 8, 2009, U.S. steel pipeline enterprises and relevant associations officially filed an application with the U.S. Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission, requesting for an anti-dumping and anti-countervailing investigation into the oil well tubing products exported from China.
On Apr. 20, United Steelworkers filed an application with the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) for a special protection investigation into China-made pneumatic passenger car tires. The applicants claimed that the exports of such Chinese products to the US has soared over the past several years, with a 215% increase in export volume for the period from 2004 to 2008, and a 295% increase in export value. This has disturbed the market of relevant U.S. industries, so they request the U.S. administration to impose an import quota of 21 million tires per year on Chinese-made passenger car tires.
According to U.S. statistics, China exported 46 million Chinese-made passenger vehicle tires to the U.S. in 2008 for a value of more than 1.7 billion USD. The USITC will announce its acceptance of the case within 7 days of the filing, and initiate the investigation.
Gerard Says Obama Administration Must Support Investigations, Import Relief
(USW) The United Steelworkers (USW) has called on the Obama Administration to reject efforts by the government of China to undermine the rule of law in two separate U.S. trade case proceedings that are currently under investigation on whether relief should be imposed for imports of oil country tubular goods and consumer tires.
Leo Gerard, USW International president, expressed outrage in yesterday’s reported attempt by the government of China to influence the U.S. trade remedy investigations. "China’s Ministry of Commerce reflects a total lack of respect for the rule of law that characterizes the U.S. administrative and judicial system," he said.
The antidumping and countervailing duty case on China imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) were entrusted to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) for decisions based on a factual record developed over the course of the investigations. Separately, the USW’s consumer tire case is handled under a country-specific trade law called ‘Section 421’ by the ITC.
The USW president said, "There is no place for the type of implied threats and pressure made by China’s Vice Commerce Minister Zhong on these cases. It is simply incredible that the Chinese government would attempt to undermine a remedy they accepted as part of its accession commitments to join the WTO in 2001."
Gerard says the USW’s consumer tire case was announced only ten days ago, and the OCTG petition by seven domestic producers was filed Apr. 8.
According to a remarkable report yesterday by the People’s Daily, China’s Vice Minister of Commerce met with U.S. Embassy personnel in Beijing "to negotiate on two trade remedy investigations targeting Chinese-made products that U.S. industries recently filed with the U.S. government."
The published article makes clear China is pressuring the U.S. not to permit these cases to be decided on the facts, while urging the Obama Administration not to provide import relief despite thousands of permanent job losses and facility shutdowns.
The USW is a co-petitioner in the OCTG trade case, and is the petitioner in the Section 421 investigation of consumer tires. The cases are filed under three U.S. laws – the antidumping (AD), the countervailing duty (CVD), and the country-specific safeguard included as Section 421 of the Trade Act of 1974 (as amended). Section 421 was approved by Congress and supported by China following a bilateral agreement in 1999 as a condition for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The USW president said, "We are entitled to a decision by the trade commission on the basis of the record developed in its investigation. If we receive an affirmative market disruption decision by the commission, the Obama Administration will then consider what remedy is appropriate.
"We have confidence that the administration and the commission will both conduct their investigations and their deliberations consistent with the statutory provisions and legislative intent of the laws in question."
Gerard adds, "We will not stand by while a foreign government attempts to undermine U.S. laws and procedures. We will be working with the Administration and the Congress to see that all efforts to influence the process by the Chinese government and its agents are placed in the public record. The public has a right to know just how pervasive the efforts are to subvert our system of justice."
The USW’s actively employed and retired workers are strong supporters of effective trade remedies consistent with U.S. laws and international agreements. Such laws and agreements are critical to the proper functioning of the trading system and the safeguarding of workers’ rights in the U.S. and around the world. Confidence in the system requires that trading partners follow the laws and agreements.
Asserting that China readily uses its own trade laws against the U.S., Gerard pointedly cites the latest semi-annual report of 2008, where there are two ongoing product investigations for chemicals, and 16 orders placed by China for relief on other import products from America. "China cannot make deceitful claims that U.S. trade cases are protectionist, when they readily exercise the same use of trade rules," he declared.
Gerard revealed that WTO summaries on the number of trade cases by other countries filed against China since 1995 have now reached to more than 640. "Obviously this demonstrates that Chinese goods are highly disruptive to domestic country markets and require trade remedies," he states.
"The current trade case investigations deserve a process free from Chinese government strong-arm diplomacy."
According to the USW petition file against China consumer tire imports, nearly 7,000 U.S. tire workers have been affected by six factory shutdowns since 2004. In the OCTG petition, about 2,000 workers are laid off by U.S. producers who make stainless steel pipes that are used to extract oil or gas from a drill wells. China imports of consumer tires and OCTG have both tripled during the investigative period of the petition filings. (Tire Review/Akron)
