2009-06-21

Protectionism is a growth industry

China's "Buy China" provision is the latest high watermark for protectionism.

Beijing defends 'buy China' order
"This document is aimed at maintaining a fair market environment for competition, which is also in line with China's law on government procurement," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

"Therefore, there is no such thing as discrimination against foreign enterprises or products."

Earlier this month, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's economic planning agency, ordered local governments to buy Chinese goods when carrying out projects linked to the nation's massive economic stimulus package.

"For government procurement, apart from cases where products and services are not available domestically or cannot be acquired on reasonable commercial terms, domestic products should be purchased," the document said.

The call for preferential treatment for Chinese firms follows claims by local businesses that a large part of Beijing's stimulus money has gone into foreign pockets, state media said.


It wasn't all China though, the U.S. ruled on Chinese tires:
China ministry "regrets" U.S. tire trade finding
The International Trade Commission found that a surge of low-cost tires from China had disrupted U.S. markets, following a complaint by the United Steelworkers union which hopes to cap Chinese tire imports at their 2005 level.

"China has repeatedly expressed its opposition to foreign governments' using safeguard clauses to launch investigations of Chinese products," Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian said in a statement posted on the ministry's website on Friday.

"The decision does not conform to objective facts, and also violates relevant World Trade Organization rules in addition to U.S. law."

Lawyers representing Chinese tire producers argue that U.S. companies largely abandoned the low-range tire market before Chinese manufacturers moved in. They also noted that no U.S. tire producers had joined the steelworkers' complaint.

No comments:

Post a Comment