Mr David A Hartquist, counsel to the Specialty Steel Industry of North America and the China Currency Coalition, will testify before the US Trade Representative that China is in violation of its commitments to the World Trade Organization on subsidies.
According to Mr Hartquist, China has not kept this promise or honored its international legal obligations in this regard. He said that “Under a deliberate plan to build a world-class stainless steel industry in China, the Chinese government has given top priority to encouraging exports of semi fabricated and downstream stainless steel products and to reducing China's reliance on imports of these products for its domestic market. By implementing this trade distorting industrial policy at virtually every level of government, China has relied and continues to rely, upon various measures that include not only subsidies, but also import and export restrictions and other discriminatory regulations, all of which raise concerns under the WTO's agreements."
On July 31st 2008, USTR announced that it would seek public comments and would hold a hearing in Washington, DC to obtain information to be used in preparation of its annual report on China’s compliance with its WTO accession obligations. USTR has sought comments and testimony on China's commitments with respect to trading rights, import regulation, export regulation, internal policies affecting trade, intellectual property rights, services and rule of law issues, among other WTO commitments.
When China formally joined the WTO in 2001, the country made a series of commitments under the WTO's covered agreements and in China's Protocol of Accession to the WTO. Among its obligations to the WTO, China agreed to end certain government subsidies to companies in China, stating that it would eliminate, by the time of its accession to the WTO, all subsidy programs falling within the scope of Article 3 of the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. Article 3 prohibits subsidies that are contingent in law or in fact upon export performance and also prohibits subsidies that are contingent upon the use of domestic over imported goods.
