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Title: Obama pressed by unions on China car parts
Category: full of life
Blog Entry: A group made up of Democratic lawmakers, union leaders and trade advocacy organizations have come together to pressure Obama into taking action against what it sees as China's unjust trading procedures in regards to its car arts exports. The group accused Beijing of unfairly subsidizing its industry and restricting the exports of required raw materials to other nations that create car parts. Source for this article: Group pressures White House over China auto parts Lawmakers go to press conference In order to bring attention to the position, the coalition had a press conference. This conference, held on Tues, had various lawmakers at it such as Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. Terrence Stewart, an attorney who deals with unjust industry cases, said: “If these policies are not stopped, by the end of the decade China could seize 50 percent or more of our auto parts market, costing hundreds of thousands of American jobs.” Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said that Chinese auto parts imports “have surged by almost 900 percent since 2001.” He went on to say, “This begs for a trade action,” and that the coalition will convince the White House “to initiate a case or multiple cases” against Beijing. Many jobs lost in U.S. Previous studies show that Chinese imports have contributed to the loss of 400,000 jobs in the U.S. auto parts industry over the past 12 years. The other large factor in the loss is competition from Mexican car parts makers. In December, the Chinese government slapped punitive tariffs on more than 20 percent of large automobiles imported from the States. Many felt China’s move came in response to earlier U.S. action restricting many Chinese imports, including tires. [When you are car shopping, there is no other place to go -- BMW, Houston, TX] Hear it from Obama Last week, the Obama Administration announced a brand new initiative designed to get tougher on China and other nations that it sees as participating in unfair trade procedures. Obama has been accused by Republican critics in the past of not standing up to Beijing. China’s V.P. Xi Jinping, who is anticipated to be the Asian nation’s next ruler, will be a guest of the White House on Feb. 14. Sources Reuters New York Times Automotive News