China lashed a US decision to impose duties on Chinese-made tires, calling it flagrant protectionism that sends the wrong signal before the next G20 summit and risks a “chain reaction” that could slow global recovery.
“China strongly condemns this grave act of trade protectionism by the US,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce Spokesman Yao Jian (姚堅) said in a statement issued on the ministry Web site yesterday, hours after the administration of US President Barack Obama announced the move.
The new duty of 35 percent will take effect on Sept. 26 and adds to an existing 4 percent duty. The extra duty will fall to 30 percent in the second year and 25 percent in the third year.
Those levels are lower than the US International Trade Commission recommended earlier this year, but likely high enough to restrict tire imports significantly from China, if not shut them out completely.
“The president decided to remedy the clear disruption to the US tire industry based on the facts and the law in this case,” White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
The United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at many US tire production plants, filed a petition earlier this year asking for the protection.
It said a tripling of tire imports from China to about 46 million last year from about 15 million in 2004 had cost more than 5,000 US tire worker jobs.
Beijing’s reaction was unusually detailed and vehement.
“This step not only violates the rules of the WTO, it is also contrary to the relevant commitments that the United States government made at the G20 financial summit,” Yao said.
He accused the Obama administration of trade protection measures without sufficient proof and of bowing before domestic protectionist forces.
“This step has harmed China, as well as harming US interests, and even more, it sends the wrong trade protectionist signal to the world before the Pittsburgh summit,” he said.
Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and other leaders will meet for the next G20 summit of major rich and developing economies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, later this month.
Yao said the duties could spark a “chain reaction of trade protectionist measures that could slow the current pace of revival in the world economy.”
China has increasingly turned to domestic demand to shore up its growth during the global economic slump.
But for now, exports remain a key part of China’s economic engine, and its relatively cheap exports to the US have long faced complaints from US manufacturing groups and trade unions who say Beijing is unfairly overwhelming other competitors.
Yao said there was no evidence of that in the tire case, and he said Beijing could take its complaint to the WTO.
No US tire manufacturer supported the case and one, Cooper Tire, publicly opposed it.
David Spooner, outside counsel for the Chinese tire industry, said: “These tariffs are unwarranted. It’s troubling that the administration would invoke an import surge safeguard over the objections of US industry and in response to falling imports. Not a single US tire company supports these taxes.”
US tire wholesalers and retailers also warned a double-digit duty would cause them to cut jobs.
They argued that major US tire manufacturers no longer wanted to produce the low-priced tires imported from China.
“We are certainly disheartened that the president bowed to the union and disregarded the interests of thousands of other American workers and consumers,” said Marguerite Trossevin, counsel to the American Coalition for Free Trade in Tires.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS