The Obama administration is bringing a new trade case against China that seeks to pressure the rising economic power to end its export restrictions on key materials used to manufacture hybrid car batteries, flat-screen televisions and other high-tech goods.
The new trade initiative being announced Tuesday is another effort aimed at leveling the playing field for U.S. companies. Senior Obama administration officials say the U.S. will ask the World Trade Organization to facilitate talks with China over its curtailment of exports of rare earth minerals. The U.S. is bringing the case to the WTO along with the European Union and Japan, the officials said.
The fresh action is part of President Barack Obama's broader effort to crack down on what his administration sees as unfair trading practices by China that have put American companies at a competitive disadvantage. ... China has a stranglehold on the global supply of 17 rare earth minerals that are essential for making high-tech goods, including hybrid cars, weapons, flat-screen TVs, mobile phones, mercury-vapor lights, smartphones and camera lenses.
U.S. industry officials suggest it is an unfair trade practice, against rules established by the WTO, a group that includes China as a member. The senior administration officials said Beijing's export restrictions give Chinese companies a competitive advantage by providing them access to more of these rare materials at a cheaper price, while forcing U.S. companies to manage with a smaller, more costly supply.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-bc-apfn-us--us-china,0,5961794.story
Obama has done more to enforce international trade rules than any previous president. That's why the USW has endorsed him.
USW Endorses Barack Obama for Re-election as President
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/usw-endorses-barack-obama-for-re-election-as-president-141637923.html
"The President has turned around an economy he inherited that was nose-diving towards a depression by focusing on jobs, manufacturing and enforcing U.S. trade laws. "All of his accomplishments come despite obstructionist right-wingers in Congress beholden to the one percent at the expense of everybody else."
Beyond fulfilling his commitments to manufacturing and job creation, President Obama succeeded in regulating Wall Street and passing health care reform, Gerard pointed out, noting: "Because of the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies no longer can deny care to those with pre-existing conditions, no longer can drop people when they get sick, and no longer can place lifetime limits on care."
Rod Nelson, president of USW Local 207L at Cooper Tire in Findlay, Ohio, said he was eager to help the re-election efforts because he strongly believed President Obama's enforcement of laws against unfair trade has been key in getting many Americans back to work. "The President halted the illegal flood of tire imports from China that was decimating American jobs and American production," said Nelson. "Our members work hard and play by the rules and with the President leading the way, we have a government willing to stand up to unfair trade practices by foreign countries."
Rick Galiano, president of USW Local 9305 in Beaver Falls, Pa., agreed with Brown and Nelson that the President's policies from the stimulus to the auto industry rescue have preserved and created good-paying American jobs. Galiano said of particular note was the Obama administration's pursuit of a case all the way to the World Trade Organization to end China's illegal export restrictions on nine raw materials widely used in the steel, aluminum and chemical industries. "To protect its domestic producers while handicapping American manufacturers, the government of China unfairly limited export of these key materials. The Obama administration aggressively pursued a case to stop that. And Obama won," Galiano said.
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