Tariff wars: US penalises aluminum imports from China news

Washington: The US Commerce Department has imposed preliminary duties of as much as 137.65 per cent on the import of aluminum products from China. These duties will impact imports worth $514 million.

Aluminum products are used for door and window frames, gutters, car parts and furniture.

China, the largest exporter to the United States, has already run up a $119 billion trade deficit with this country in its favour in the first half of 2010. It is well on its way to meet, or exceed, last year's total of $227 billion.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department rejected a petition from US manufacturers seeking an increase of duties on imports from China to offset advantages they said was derived from currency manipulation by Beijing.

Aluminum and glossy paper manufacturers had claimed that an undervalued currency acted as a subsidy for Chinese producers allowing them to undercut American competitors.

The Commerce Department rejected these arguments

The petition became a cause celebre of sorts with American manufacturers as the Treasury Department refused to escalate matters with the Chinese by dubbing them as currency manipulators.

US Congressional lawmakers have been pressing hard to introduce legislation that would compel the Commerce Department to act in this regard and recognise China's currency manipulation, if it fails to act on its own.

''The Commerce Department made its finding while still managing to ignore the elephant in the room, which is China's currency manipulation,'' Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said yesterday in a statement. ''Once again, even when the opportunity is thrust into its hands, the administration has refused to take action.''

Commerce department officials said the complaints were rejected as China's currency policy wasn't ''specific to the enterprise or industries being investigated.''

Reacting strongly to the decision, Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which represents steelworkers and steelmakers, said, ''It's now up to Congress to pass legislation to strengthen and modernize our trade laws so that the devastating impact of currency manipulation can be factored into penalties.''

''There appears to be strong bipartisan support for holding China accountable and passing legislation,'' he added.

The Commerce Department decision sidestepped the issue of currency manipulation by considering if China's currency policies represented a financial contribution to exporters and provided specific benefit to those exporting the aluminum and glossy paper.

''The exchange system of China is 'unified,' meaning that there is only one 'price' for every user,'' the department said.

Global trade rules require that subsidies meet certain standards before they countervailing duties can be applied.

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.