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Report: China’s Lax Environmental Laws Cost Jobs and Lives |
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The long list of China’s unfair trade advantages and human rights violations already includes currency manipulation, failure to enforce workers’ rights and a general disrespect for human rights. Now, add global pollution to the list. A new report reveals that China is among the world’s leading polluters and putting the brakes on global warming can not be achieved unless the administration and Congress hold China accountable for its reckless environmental practices.
The report, An Assessment of Environmental Regulation of the Steel Industry in China, was released today by the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), a nonpartisan, nonprofit partnership of several leading U.S. manufacturers and the United Steelworkers (USW). The report focuses on China’s rapidly growing steel industry and documents China’s ineffective enforcement of weak pollution-control standards, its failure to use adequate pollution-prevention measures, and the resulting high levels of pollution.
In fact, China’s lax environmental enforcement gives its steel producers an unfair trade advantage that must be addressed in U.S. trade law, the report says. Read the full report here.
During a press conference call this afternoon, USW President Leo Gerard said, “American jobs are at stake and so is the health of the planet.”
As we struggle with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, China’s weak enforcement of environmental laws greatly exacerbates [efforts to end global warming] and destroys American jobs.
When you have these kinds of global trading arrangements, it is irresponsible to expect us to [be more competitive] when all the cards are stacked against us. This report should be used as a guide for China and the U.S. to make Chinese pollution standards and enforcement efforts more consistent with programs in other steel-producing countries.
Propelled by its rapid industrial expansion and minimal environmental standards, China produces more sulfur dioxide than any other country and has taken the lead in generating carbon dioxide as well.
China’s production of steel has quadrupled this decade, making it by far the world’s largest source of steel. It now produces more than the United States, Russia and Japan combined. And while China produces one-third of the world’s steel, it is responsible for half of the world’s carbon dioxide from steelmaking, making it a leading contributor to global warming.
Due to China’s low standards and lax enforcement, U.S. steel companies in recent years spent 80 percent more than their Chinese counterparts per ton of steel on controlling air and water pollution alone, according to the AAM report. This meant a yearly savings for China’s steel industry of more than $1.7 billion at 2006 production levels.
In addition to low environmental standards, the new report found “the Chinese steel industry operates in an environment in which enforcement of existing standards is weak, the permit system is ineffective and facilities do not do an adequate job of monitoring their emissions and discharges. Financial penalties for violations are too low to have a substantial deterrent effect.”
Scott Paul, executive director of AAM, said:
China’s steel industry is not only harming the health of its own people, but spreading pollution around the world and contributing to global warming. At the same time, China benefits economically from its failure to control pollution, giving it a significant advantage over its foreign competitors.
The World Bank reports there are as many as 750,000 premature deaths in China each year from pollution and 99 percent of the 540 million Chinese who live in urban areas breathe unsafe air. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that on some days, one-fourth of the particulate matter (dust and soot) in Los Angeles comes from China.
“This report shows that China does not enforce its own environmental regulations,” said Terrence Straub, senior vice president of U.S. Steel Corp.
Since Beijing has been unwilling to impose reasonable emissions regulations on provincial and local governments, there’s little anticipation that they will address carbon emissions and global climate change either.
China now has access to “the know-how needed to address effectively the industry’s environmental problems,” the report notes. And if China doesn’t take steps “to bring pollution levels closer to those in the rest of the world, China’s trading partners can justifiably complain that China’s failure to act confers on its domestic steelmaking industry an unfair competitive advantage.”
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