The US pushed ahead on Friday with two new investigations into charges of unfair trade practices by China, but rejected a third case one week ahead of US President Barack Obama’s trip to Asia.
US lawmakers also asked Obama to renew his support for legislation targeting China’s exchange rate practices.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) approved investigations into imports of glossy magazine-quality paper from China and Indonesia totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as certain types of salt from China that are used in cleaning products, food additives and fertilizer.
The votes came one day after the US Commerce Department slapped preliminary anti-dumping duties on about US$2.6 billion in steel pipes from China used in the oil and gas sector. Those were in addition to preliminary countervailing duties set on the pipe in September to offset Chinese subsidies.
The steel pipe case is biggest US trade action against China to date and Beijing quickly denounced the new duties.
It also launched its own investigation into imports of US automobiles and sports utility vehicles, which it says have benefited from a long list of incentives and tax breaks granted by the US government and the state of Michigan.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of 45 lawmakers in the House of Representatives urged Obama in a letter to declare support for their bill allowing the Commerce Department to slap duties on imports from countries with “misaligned currencies.”
The bill is aimed mainly at China, which lawmakers accused of deliberately undervaluing its currency against the dollar to give its firms an unfair trade advantage.
They blame China’s exchange rate practices for a big chunk of the US trade deficit with China, which totaled US$143.7 billion in first eight months of this year.
Since taking office in January, the Obama administration has launched at least a dozen trade probes against China in response to petitions filed by US companies or unions. US law requires the ITC, an independent trade body, to approve any investigation launched by the Commerce Department.
In a relatively rare example of that, the ITC on Friday rejected an inquiry into whether China and Taiwan were subsidizing and dumping certain steel fasteners in the US. It said there was not enough evidence US manufacturer Nucor Fastener had been harmed or threatened with harm by the imports.
Of the two cases approved by the ITC on Friday, the one involving glossy paper was a victory for the United Steelworkers union, a driving force behind the steel pipe case and Obama’s decision in September to slap a 35 percent duty on Chinese-made tires.
“We cannot stand by and let imports unfairly take away our good jobs and shutdown factories,” Leo Gerard, president of the steelworkers union said in a statement.
But US paper importer, Global Paper Solutions, blasted the ruling, which it said was unwarranted and sent a protectionist message ahead of Obama’s 10-day trip to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea beginning this week.
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