PRICE-CUTTING Chinese
steelmakers have
aroused the US steel industry to anger, reducing American political support
for the pending Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
Reuters
reports Chinese steel producers were cutting export prices, riding the fall of
the yuan after the series of central bank devaluations last week.
"This
devaluation is just the latest attempt to support Chinese industry at the
expense of producers in the rest of the world who have to earn their cost of
capital to survive," said US steelmaker Nucor Corp lawyer Alan Price.
Mr Price also
said China had built "massive excess capacity in steel, aluminum unrelated
to market demand" and should shut some of its plants.
Said United
Steelworkers president Leo Gerard: "Washington has been asleep at
the switch in dealing with China" and called for action against
"China's predatory practices" before more US jobs were lost.
Steel jobs
are pivotal in the coming presidential election, including in Ohio, where state
senators from both parties criticised the devaluation, linking it to trade
talks.
Said Ohio
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown: "The US needs to ensure American
businesses and workers have a backstop to fight against currency
manipulation."
Said Ohio
Republican Senator Rob Portman: "We cannot afford to sit idly by
as China refuses to play by the rules. Any negotiations on the Trans-Pacific
Partnership must combat currency manipulation."
Since July,
American steelmakers including AK Steel, US Steel Corp and
Nucor have filed trade petitions over imports of hot-rolled steel and
cold-rolled steel. China was named in the cold-rolled steel complaint.
Said American
Iron and Steel Institute head Thomas Gibson: "China has
consistently intervened directly in foreign exchange markets to make their
exports more competitive and impose new barriers to imports."
Source :
HKSG.
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