EU and US in WTO challenge to China
The US and the European Union on Thursday joined forces for the first time to challenge China before the World Trade Organisation, sweeping aside diplomatic niceties weeks before a visit of the Chinese president to Washington.
The complaint, accusing China of maintaining illegal trade barriers against imported car parts, is provocatively timed ahead of Hu Jintao’s visit.
Rob Portman, US trade representative, indicated that diplomacy would not be allowed to stand in the way of defending American industry. “The timing of these exercises ought not to be dictated by political concerns,” he said. “We do not think this is something aggressive but appropriate...The issue has become ripe.”
The US has negotiated with China over its curbs for more than a year. Mr Portman said it had given China every opportunity to agree a deal, including 11th hour talks with the Chinese ambassador on the eve of yesterday’s announcement.
Both Brussels and Washington said they hoped a solution could still be reached before the WTO began formal settlement proceedings. Thursday’s move opens the way for 60 days of consultations with China to see whether the dispute can be resolved. If not, the two plaintiffs will probably ask for the creation of a WTO panel to rule on the issue.
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Peter Mandelson, the EU’s trade commissioner, said: “It remains my strong preference and intention to seek an amicable solution to this issue.”
China has only faced one previous WTO case - brought by the US - over semiconductors. The US administration has been under growing pressure from Congress to take a tougher line. Thursday’s action was the latest signal that Washington intends to become more aggressive in using the WTO and other trade tools to open China’s market for US exports. The US exported $645m worth of car parts to China last year in a market estimated at $19.1bn.
Max Baucus, a Democratic senator who has introduced legislation to crack down on alleged trade violations by China, welcomed the move Thursday but warned: “We are in a dangerous place in our relationship with China, partly because China does not always play by the rules.”
The case aims at regulations intended to encourage Chinese carmakers to use domestic rather than imported car parts. The US and EU claim China is imposing unfair “local content’’ rules through a complex tariff system that raises the import tariffs from 10 per cent to 25 per cent if foreign parts make up more than a certain proportion of a car.
The EU has also previously challenged “local content’’ rules applied by India, Canada and Indonesia. China, however, has defended this system as a way of preventing carmakers from importing whole cars as spare parts to avoid the higher tariffs on fully constructed vehicles.
美欧首次联手向WTO投诉中国
美国和欧盟(EU) 昨日无视外交礼节，在中国国家主席胡锦涛访美仅数周前，首次联合向世界贸易组织(WTO)对中国提出投诉。
美欧在投诉中，指责中国对进口汽车零部件维持非法贸易壁垒，而投诉时机挑衅性地选择在胡锦涛访美前夕。
美国贸易代表罗布?波特曼(Rob Portman)表示，在保护美国工业一事上，不应让外交因素成为障碍。“政治方面的考虑，不应左右采取这些行动的时机，”他表示，“我们不认为这是挑衅性的，而是恰当的……提出这个问题的时机已经成熟。”
美国已与中国就其限制性措施进行了为期1年以上的磋商。波特曼表示，（美国）已给中国一切机会达成一致意见，包括在昨日宣布决定的前夜，在最后一刻仍在与中国大使进行会谈。
欧盟和美国均表示，它们仍希望在世贸组织启动正式解决程序之前，找出解决方案。昨日的举动，开始了与中国之间为期60天的磋商期，来看看争议能否得到解决。如果未能得到解决，两个原告方可能将要求成立一个世贸组织专门小组，对此问题进行裁决。
欧盟贸易专员彼得?曼德尔森(Peter Mandelson)表示：“我仍强烈倾向于、并希望看到这一问题得到友好解决。”
美国国会要求政府采取更为强硬立场的压力越来越大，此前美国政府只有一次向世贸组织对中国提出投诉。
昨日的举动是一个最新信号：表明美国政府打算更为积极地利用世贸组织及其它贸易工具，打开中国对美国出口商品的市场。去年，美国向中国出口了价值6.45亿美元的汽车零部件，据估计，该市场规模为191亿美元。
克里斯托弗?斯旺(Christopher Swann)华盛顿、拉斐尔?曼代(Raphael Minder)布鲁塞尔、詹姆斯?麦金托什(James Mackintosh)伦敦报道
