US president Barack Obama has promised to use new tools in the new Customs and Trade Enforcement Bill to take action against unfair Chinese trade practices which he said have caused12,000 workers to lose their job in the steel sector in the US, with 2,000 jobs lost in Minnesota alone, according to news reports.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that China in the past has not always operated fairly. They are now in a process where they are trying to transition their economic model. They realize that they can’t forever sustain an export-driven growth model, but it’s going to take some time, and it’s temping for them to solve short-term problems by just dumping a bunch of state-subsidized goods into the US market. And we’ve been very clear with them about it; that’s not going to work, we’re going to put in place tools to make sure it doesn’t work,” said Obama, adding, “It is important that we don’t get confused by thinking that we should close-off trade as an enforcement tool because that is not possible. What is possible is making sure that everybody is on a level playing field.”