China’s Unfair Trade Puts U.S. Auto Parts Jobs at Risk
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More than 1.6 million American jobs in the nation’s auto supply chain are at risk unless China’s illegal trade practices are curtailed, according to three new reports released today. In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said:
China is cheating unmercifully in this sector and we are saying to China—and asking our government to stand up to China and say—“enough is enough.” It is time to enforce our trade policies.
Two reports from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and one from Stewart and Stewart, a law firm that has won cases challenging China’s unfair trade practices, detail China’s persistent and growing violations of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and outline plans by China’s government to use these same tactics to boost their auto parts exports even further.
In the past 10 years alone, China’s auto parts exports to the United States have increased by 850 percent, while jobs in the parts industry declined by more than 400,000. Says Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM): Read the rest of this entry »
How, Exactly, Does Trade Bring Prosperity?
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This is a cross-post from Huffington Post by Stan Sorscher, labor representative for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace/IFPTE Local 2001 (SPEEA/IFPTE).
I work for a labor union in the aerospace industry. We are 100 percent in favor of trade. We make products the rest of the world wants to buy.
With increased trade we expect more prosperity. Instead, we see the American economy de-industrializing and job security at historic lows. So, what’s going wrong?
[The chart above] tells the story. Since the [North American Free Trade Agreement] (NAFTA) and [the World Trade Organization] (WTO) took effect around 1995, our trade deficit has widened steadily, except for the 2008 crash, which cut imports more than exports.
WTO Upholds Obama’s Tire Industry Relief Decision
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Appellate Body yesterday upheld President Obama’s decision based on U.S. trade law to provide relief for American tire industry workers against surging imports from China of passenger and light truck tires.
In September 2009, Obama became the first president to enforce U.S. trade law when he imposed tariffs to protect domestic workers against a surge in tire imports from China. The original complaint came from the United Steelworkers (USW), and Obama’s decision led to a rebound in the tire industry.
WTO Ruling Shows Trade Law Can Work for Workers
A World Trade Organization (WTO) panel’s ruling in favor of U.S. tariffs on passenger and light truck tires made in China shows “the rules of trade, when vigorously enforced, can be made to work for working people,” United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said.
In September 2009, President Obama became the first president to enforce U.S. trade law when he imposed tariffs to protect domestic workers against a surge in tire imports from China. The original complaint came from the USW, and Obama’s decision led to a rebound in the tire industry.
China appealed the decision to the WTO and the ruling was announced yesterday. Gerard applauded the Obama administration for “standing up and defending American jobs in its original decision to impose relief and in its strong defense of that action at the WTO.”
Fair trade law enforcement should be the standard of our government in requiring China to fulfill its obligations under its accession agreement with the WTO more than a decade ago.
Congressional Report: China’s WTO Membership Doesn’t Help U.S. Workers
China’s government has failed to live up to the claims its backers made in 2001 to help it gain entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to a congressional commission.
In its 2010 annual report, released yesterday, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) details the multiple ways the Chinese government has flooded the United States with exports while shutting its doors to imports and costing millions of U.S. jobs.
In an understatement, Carolyn Bartholomew, the commission’s vice-chairman, told a Washington, D.C., press conference yesterday:
The grounds on which it [China’s entry into the WTO] was sold did not turn out as promised for American workers.
Supporters claimed in 2001 that admitting China into the WTO would boost U.S. exports, increase American jobs and help transform China’s authoritarian government and enhance U.S. national security. None of that has happened, the USCC report says.
Lexington Institute Finds Tanker Bidder EADS Breaks Trading Rules
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If the U.S. Defense Department awards its $35 billion air tanker contract to European-based EADS over U.S-owned Boeing, it would reward a company that breaks international trading rules, says Loren Thompson of the nonpartisan Lexington Institute.
The contract for the tanker was rebid after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2008 upheld Boeing’s protest of the original contract award. First, EADS and its partner Northrop Grumman said they were dropping out of the bidding. But this spring, EADS announced it would bid alone for the contract.
Here’s what’s at stake. Granting the contract to Boeing would create at least 50,000 family-supporting jobs, save taxpayer dollars and protect fair trade laws. But, if EADS wins the contract, most of the jobs would be in Europe. The few thousand jobs created here under an EADS contract would be low-paid assembly jobs with no union representation.
Obama Enforces Trade Laws on China Tire Imports
President Obama took decisive action yesterday to provide relief to the domestic consumer tire industry in response to surging exports of tires from China. His actions will bring relief to many workers and their families and reverse course after eight years of neglect of trade laws by the Bush administration.
In July, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of a United Steelworkers (USW) petition filed under Section 421 of the Trade Act of 1974. The ITC found that tariff relief was needed to urgently reduce the negative impact of those tire imports. Obama’s decision imposes an increased duty on tires from China for three years. The duties are 35 percent in the first year, then 30 percent and 25 percent in each of the following years.
U.S., European Union File Complaint Over China’s Trade Restrictions
The Obama administration and the European Union (EU) announced yesterday they plan to jointly file a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over China’s trade restrictions on exports of key raw materials used to manufacture products such as baseball bats, contact lenses and plumbing fixtures.
When China joined the WTO in 2001, it committed to remove the export restrictions on the raw materials. The export restraints are significant because China is the largest global producer of many of the raw materials in question—bauxite, coke, zinc, silicon metal, silicon carbide, fluorspar, yellow phosphorous, magnesium and manganese.
