Sept 19, 2010
Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has said that Chinese trade practices in the compeonents for clean energy are a violation of World Trade Organization rules.
On Platts Energy Week, Senator Brown said, “What we have done is operate within the confines of World Trade Organization rules... The Chinese haven’t. They haven’t because of currency, they haven’t because of other direct subsidies in clean energy.” He says that this could undermine the goals of the US stimulus plan.
Earlier in the week, Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich) Ron Wyden (D-Ore) and others joined Senator Brown in supporting a United Steelworkers petition to the US Trade Representative to bring a case against China before the WTO.
United Steelworkers, the largest labor union representing 1.2 million active and retired members, claims that various Chinese subsidies and preferences for domestic firms are harming U.S. companies and freezing them out of a growing market. Their case, filed on September 9, 2010 is 5800 pages long and identifies five predatory and protectionist practices used by China"
- Restrictions on access to critical materials
- Performance requirements for investors
- Discrimination against foreign firms and goods
- Prohibited export subsidies and prohibited domestic content subsidies
- Trade distorting domestic subsidies
“Green jobs are key to our future,” said Leo W. Gerard, International President of the USW. “Right now, China is taking every possible step – many of them illegal under international trade laws – to ensure that it will control that sector. America can’t afford to cede more of its manufacturing base to China."
