Senators urge Obama to reverse WTO ruling
Dayton Business Journal – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, were among nearly two dozen senators urging President Barack Obama’s administration to “take all steps necessary” to reverse a recent World Trade Organization ruling that would jeopardize the United States’ ability to carry out antidumping and countervailing duty investigations against China.
The group made the request in a letter this week to United States Trade Representative Ambassador Ron Kirk.
“Trade enforcement is critical to keeping our economic recovery–and manufacturing job growth–on track,” Brown said, in a statement. “A host of Ohio industries, including steel, tire, and paper manufacturers, have faced unfairly subsidized competition from cheap Chinese imports dumped into American markets. Only because of strong enforcement of our trade remedy laws have these sectors been able to make a comeback in my state.”
China brought a challenge to several antidumping and countervailing duty investigations conducted by the United States in 2008. In October 2010, a WTO dispute settlement panel ruled that the United States had the right to impose both antidumping and countervailing duty penalties against unfair Chinese trade practices. The U.S. position was upheld in a host of related practices, but a recent Appellate decision reversed the key aspects of a WTO panel decision that had strongly upheld U.S. trade remedy laws and their applications.
