WORLD> America
|
WORLD> America
|
|
US sets preliminary penalties on China's oil pipes
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-06 17:32 CHINA BECOMES MAIN TARGET OF PROTECTIONISM The onset of the global recession appears to have set off an increase in trade disputes around the world. Globally, new requests for protection from imports in the first half of 2009 were up 18.5 percent over the first half of 2008, according to the World Bank-sponsored Global Anti-dumping Database organized by Chad P. Bown, a Brandeis University economics professor. That increase followed a 44-percent increase in new investigations in 2008. And China has become the main target of the rising protectionism. Earlier this week, the US Commerce Department imposed preliminary countervailing duties (CVD), ranging from 2.02 percent to 437.73 percent, on imports of steel wire decking from China. On Wednesday, the United States, together with EU and Mexico, requested the World Trade Organization (WTO) to establish a dispute settlement panel to rule on China's export restraints on raw materials. The cases followed US President Barack Obama's recent decision to impose punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tires from China for three years, a move quickly denounced by China as a "serious act of trade protectionism." The protectionist moves by the Obama administration will ultimately hurt the US-China trade relations, which are becoming more and more important due to the global financial crisis, economists warned. The moves will also hurt the interests of US consumers. "We're worried about increasing costs for people using these products," said Lewis Lebowitz, counsel to the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition. "China is the number one target of these duties and anti-dumping measures and the primary reason is that China is very competitive," said Edwin Vermulst, a trade lawyer with Vermulst Verhaeghe Graafsma & Bronkers.
|
