The Obama administration filed a new trade complaint against China at the World Trade Organization Tuesday that charged Beijing with illegally subsidizing rice, wheat and corn by setting prices higher than market levels.
“When American workers, businesses, and farmers have a fair shot to compete in the global economy, we win. And when other countries flout the rules to try and undercut American workers and farmers, we hold them accountable,” Obama said in a statement announcing the WTO action.
“These unfairly distorted prices on important crops lead to overproduction in China and disadvantage American farmers who export these same crops around the world,” he added.
The complaint follows another the U.S. launched against China in July challenging Beijing’s 20 percent tax on exports of raw materials.
Obama said his administration has pursued more trade enforcement actions than any administration in the past, and filed 22 cases at the WTO during his time in office, 14 of which were against China, including Tuesday’s new case. The president made a point of noting that the U.S. has won all of the WTO cases it’s filed.
“We’re confident the case we’re bringing today will be no different: It should bring an end to China’s illegal subsidies, remove significant barriers on American exports, and level the playing field for American farmers and their families who rely on the rice, wheat and corn industries and the hundreds of thousands of jobs they help support,” Obama said.
While the WTO complaints take a piecemeal approach to enforcing world standards, Obama said a better way to ensure the United States is in control of the world trade stage is for Congress to approve the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP.
“It protest American innovation and intellectual property, enforces groundbreaking environmental and labor commitments, expands export opportunities for our farmers and businesses, and sets the highest benchmarks in history for holding America’s trading partners,” he said.
Finalizing TPP is critically important, he warned, because China is negotiating a trade deal of its own in order to try to leverage its influence with the growing Asia-Pacific market.
“Unless we act now to set our own high standards, the fast-growing Asia-Pacific will be force to play by lower-standard rules that we didn’t set,” he said. “We can’t let that happen.”
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have hammered the TPP on the campaign trail, and the massive trade deal isn’t seen as having much of a chance for passage in the lame-duck session of Congress.
“When American workers, businesses, and farmers have a fair shot to compete in the global economy, we win. And when other countries flout the rules to try and undercut American workers and farmers, we hold them accountable,” Obama said in a statement announcing the WTO action.
“These unfairly distorted prices on important crops lead to overproduction in China and disadvantage American farmers who export these same crops around the world,” he added.
The complaint follows another the U.S. launched against China in July challenging Beijing’s 20 percent tax on exports of raw materials.
Obama said his administration has pursued more trade enforcement actions than any administration in the past, and filed 22 cases at the WTO during his time in office, 14 of which were against China, including Tuesday’s new case. The president made a point of noting that the U.S. has won all of the WTO cases it’s filed.
“We’re confident the case we’re bringing today will be no different: It should bring an end to China’s illegal subsidies, remove significant barriers on American exports, and level the playing field for American farmers and their families who rely on the rice, wheat and corn industries and the hundreds of thousands of jobs they help support,” Obama said.
While the WTO complaints take a piecemeal approach to enforcing world standards, Obama said a better way to ensure the United States is in control of the world trade stage is for Congress to approve the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP.
“It protest American innovation and intellectual property, enforces groundbreaking environmental and labor commitments, expands export opportunities for our farmers and businesses, and sets the highest benchmarks in history for holding America’s trading partners,” he said.
Finalizing TPP is critically important, he warned, because China is negotiating a trade deal of its own in order to try to leverage its influence with the growing Asia-Pacific market.
“Unless we act now to set our own high standards, the fast-growing Asia-Pacific will be force to play by lower-standard rules that we didn’t set,” he said. “We can’t let that happen.”
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have hammered the TPP on the campaign trail, and the massive trade deal isn’t seen as having much of a chance for passage in the lame-duck session of Congress.
