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.
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS