It all started when President Obama, under pressure from U.S. unions, slapped a 35% tariff on tire imports from China. This move angered Beijing to no end, and to the point that China is challenging the action with the World Trade Organization.
China, in retaliation, has said that it would launch an "antidumping" policy against U.S. car exports to China. U.S. car makers export only about 9,000 vehicles to China at present. However, China is now the leading auto maker in the world, and barring U.S. imports would hamper the U.S. auto export market.
Also, we do not know which way the Europeans will swing in this move. They too, export their vehicles to China.
Meanwhile, in Congress, sentiment is growing to pass an antidumping bill that would slap antidumping or countervailing duties on goods from countries that "undervalue" their currency. As you probably already know, China has been accused of undervaluing its currency to enhance its export prices.
This is the first volley. Whether this is the beginning of a protectionist trade war between the U.S. and China remains to be seen.
Do you believe that this is the right policy?











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-01-2009 @ 12:05PM
Hmmmm said...
Come on now, do you really expect us to believe this? It’s just another ploy to stop Americans from what is really happening. Makes it look like our Government is doing something for the average Joe...just like Healthcare reform, and the myth that America was able to vote someone in that will make a difference...again its to pacify you, keep you quiet
Btw - China just got access to the largest Copper mine in Afghanistan, but has done little to control the area....hmmm who are we really fighting for?
11-01-2009 @ 12:45PM
Hmmmm said...
Oh, and I forgot 90% our shipping ports are foreign managed...by you know China, India, and South Korea....
You remember the Panama Canal....too bad we gave control of it to Hutchinson Whampoa Ltd - go ahead read about this deal...the list goes go on and on, so you think there is going to be some sort of trade war, with who - themselves?
11-01-2009 @ 12:55PM
sonnype said...
Our goverment sold its own people out by making trade agreements that sent our jobs to China to make Wall Street rich.We gave the Chineese our technology and our manufacturing know-how and they give us cheap goods which we cant buy anymore because we dont have jobs .Our government is just blowing smoke because it cant afford to make the Chineeses angry or they will stop buying our debt obligations so we can futher spent beyond our means.The Chineese dont need an army to defeat us all it needs to do is keep buying our politicians who have sold us out.
11-01-2009 @ 5:07PM
clikdawg said...
This is where all that "useless" posturing by the Chinese regarding the continued suitability of the dollar as world currency starts to pay off: The point all along was to plant it firmly in the minds of developing markets (as well as here at home) that The US Monetary System Cannot Be Trusted But The Chinese Version Can.
Since all the US has going for it (besides its military machine) is money, to cast reasonable doubt on its currency is to create doubt that the US itself as a whole is a viable trading or alliance partner for the future.
The alternative, of course, is China.
And since posturing costs nothing, if it results in one single extra order for Chinese goods or one single extra pro-China treaty it will have more than repaid the investment.
They are the businessmen we used to be -- still out there plumping for the nickels and dimes on which fortunes and empires are actually built, while we fritter away our wealth and power playing Wall Street's get-rich-quick edition of PowerBall; still dotting the i's and crossing the t's internationally on what we have grown to consider unacceptably low-return markets.
They hustle; we have reduced ourselves to mere hustlers of castles in the sky.
11-01-2009 @ 5:50PM
clikdawg said...
PS to HMMMM --
For all you and I can tell from our own direct, certain knowledge, the continued and self-detrimental US policing of AQ and the Taliban is a condition of Chinese assumption of our debt -- if our bucks are suspect and our manufacturing is kaput all we have left to sell is guns, gunners, and Hollywood.
11-01-2009 @ 9:03PM
William A Daviau said...
During the 1960's we effectively boycotted China and didn't allow any Chinese goods into America. During that time we controlled 63% of the world's manufacturing and there were plently of factory jobs for everyone.
Why are cheap goods at Wal-Mart better than that?
11-02-2009 @ 7:08AM
Hmmmm said...
clikdawg - too right you are.
Fellow Americans, welcome to China…now it will not be as bold as that but the end result will be much the same. The economy for 95% of Americans will get very bad in the next five years; most will welcome some sort of government overseer…like the Pay Czar to even things out…at the moment the people afraid are the top 5% to 10% - they were setup to believe in their own self worth and now will be used as scapegoats…I can hear the crowds cheering as their money is taken away and given back to the people…Europe is the only unknown factor, how are they going to react now that it has become clear that America is, for all practical purposes, China. In addition, I do not understand why China is allowing India to take such control of American Computer Technology – or does India’s dependence on America translate to dependence on China…don’t know
Or, I hope, I am very wrong….
11-02-2009 @ 10:17AM
clikdawg said...
Hmmmm --
Check out this article in "Times of India" for a possible answer to your China/India question:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Break-India-says-China-think-tank/articleshow/4883573.cms
Why not let India have American computer technology if you are (perhaps) planning to assist in India's break-up?
See also Mark Leonard's "What Does China Think?" for a simple overall view of Chinese poli/econ strategy in their own neighborhood -- she must make certain concessions now in order not to appear to be bent on dominating the East if she wishes to create a more unified pan-Eastern bloc.