Labor & Employment Law

Obama Administration Accepts USW Complaint Against China?s Clean Energy Subsidies

By James Parks

President Obama showed once again he is willing to enforce U.S. trade laws. Today, his administration accepted the United Steelworkers? (USW’s) petition under Section 301 of the trade law claiming China?s government has used hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, performance requirements, preferential practices and other trade-illegal activities to dominate the renewable energy market.

 The 5,800-page petition, filed with the U.S. Trade Representative, identifies five major areas where China’s government?s protectionist and predatory practices helped develop that nation’s green energy sector at the expense of production and job creation here in the United States. The actions violate the terms China?s government agreed to when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the petition says. Click here to download  a copy of the executive summary.

USW President Leo Gerard said accepting the petition,

sends the message that America is not going to stand by while our jobs get outsourced.  China and all of our trading partners need to understand that we want fair trade and that we’re not going to allow unfair and illegal trade practices to deny our farmers, workers and businesses of the opportunity to compete on a level playing field.  

In a sattement, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said:

In the coming months, our political leaders need to stand with the President and make clear that Americans are united in this effort. As the election approaches, voters should ask every candidate to support a trade policy that creates jobs and wealth here at home, not one that ignores the Chinese government?s unfair and illegal practices.

After the petition was filed last month, more than 185 members of the House and 44 senators, mainly Democrats, have come out in favor of accepting the petition, Gerard said.

The acceptance of the petition is significant also because of our nation’s huge trade deficit with China, which reached a record-breaking $28 billion in August. Gerard and Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Executive Director Scott Paul said acting favorably on the USW?s petition was an important first step towards stemming the loss of U.S. jobs to China.

By law, Obama has until Oct. 24 to decide whether to proceed with or reject the complaint. In September 2009, Obama took decisive action to provide relief to the domestic consumer tire industry in response to surging exports of tires from China, the first such action in eight years.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 15, 2010 (boomark / email).