As the Pittsburgh Post Gazette is reporting, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is scheduled to visit Pittsburgh today, where he will be “greeted by a chorus of calls to bolster ailing U.S. manufacturers by taking action against China’s currency and trade policies.” The Post Gazette article cites a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute [...]
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The Wall Street Journal says the U.S. is “wrong” to protest China’s “fixed yuan-dollar rate.” Their explanation is that many countries adopt a fixed rate, so as to ensure market stability. China is no different… Actually, that’s not true. If it were correct that most countries maintain a strict dollar peg, there would be no [...]
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Here’s a scenario you didn’t see: The North American International Auto Show got underway last week and not a single Japanese car was allowed. Such a slight would be unthinkable, but it’s not far from what Japan did recently when it chose to exclude U.S. autos from its “Cash for Clunkers” trade-in program. The gall [...]
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Recently, China has dumped a flood of subsidized OCTG (Oil Country Tubular Goods) steel pipe into the U.S. market. Known as OCTG pipe because it is used for the extraction of oil and gas, this pipe has flooded the U.S. market and, from 2006 to 2008 alone, the volume of these imports increased by 203 [...]
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The Associated Press reports that China has criticized last week’s U.S.-China Commission (USCC) report for asserting that Chinese spies are aggressively stealing U.S. secrets. Beijing warns that the report is “full of prejudice” and that it could damage U.S.-China relations. This is laughable. Not only are China’s espionage, cyber attacks, intellectual property theft, piracy, and [...]
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On Friday, the Wall Street Journal trumpeted the news that a Chinese firm will be the exclusive supplier to one of the largest wind-farm developments in the U.S. and that the developer of the project would be seeking U.S. taxpayer assistance. The 36,000-acre West Texas development announced that it would purchase 240 2.5-megawatt wind turbines [...]
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Bloomberg News reports that the Obama administration may elevate Ron Bloom, head of the government’s auto task force, to a job that would set U.S. manufacturing policy more broadly. The U.S. desperately needs a national industrial policy, including strong enforcement of U.S. trade law. Bloom would have his work cut out for him, but it [...]
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The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has done it again. In contrast to their stated interest in supporting American manufacturers, they’ve criticized someone who wants to strengthen U.S. manufacturing. In a recent item, NAM praises Dan Ikenson’s criticism of Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson. In a column fretting about declining U.S. manufacturing, Meyerson had noted [...]
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In Pittsburgh today, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced that the Obama administration will take a more aggressive approach to supporting American industrial workers through greater protection of labor rights and more aggressive monitoring of overseas trade practices. In a speech unveiling new initiatives for trade enforcement, Ambassador Kirk promised that his office would begin [...]
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The Obama administration has announced that it will bring its first trade case against China in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has launched a case against China for imposing restrictions on exports of raw materials used to make steel, aluminum and chemicals. By restricting exports, China gives its producers a price advantage over U.S manufacturers. [...]
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