Charging China with following unfair trade practices, an influential US Senator has proposed a bill of rights to protect the American workforce from unfair competition in a global economy.
"China is guilty of international banditry. China violates our trade laws with impunity, robs American workers of their jobs, takes our money and lends it back, and now owns a big part of America," senator Arlen Specter said in remarks to US Steelworkers at a steel plant near Pittsburgh.
Specter alleged that US' continuing loss of manufacturing jobs that threatens the welfare and preeminence of the country were because of the unfair trade practices of China.
He said the chief threat to US industry, specially steel, was from China whose predatory trading practices and currency manipulation were flooding the market with low-priced imports.
"China is guilty of international banditry," he said.
"My legislation, written to comply with WTO regulations against injunctive relief, addresses dumping, which occurs when a foreign producer sells a product in the United States at a price below that producer's sales price at home or at a price lower than the cost of production; and subsidising, which occurs when a foreign government provides financial assistance to benefit the production, manufacture, or exportation of a good," he said.
The American Association of Manufacturing along with US Steel and United Steelworkers reported last week that since 2001 US has lost 2.4 million jobs to Chinese trade practices.
Almost 100,000 of those jobs were in Pennsylvania, which ranked sixth among states in jobs lost.
He said China's export-oriented economy and soaring trade surpluses were fuelled by 'repressive labour policies and depressed wages at home' and the country also provides direct government subsidies in many key industries and maintains strict, non-tariff barriers to imports.
As a result, China's exports of $337.5 billion to the US in 2008 were more than five times greater than US exports to China, which totaled only $67.2 billion, he said, adding this imbalance was not sustainable and needs to be reversed.
He said the Yuan was undervalued by 40 per cent, and unless it is allowed to appreciate, the US trade deficit and job losses will continue to mount.
"If China refuses to cooperate, the treasury department should declare China a currency manipulator, a step that would ease the way to imposing retaliatory trade barriers," he said.
The Senator demanded the commerce department must act more aggressively to enforce existing trade laws and at the same time initiate new enforcement actions.
He said the Congress should enact legislation that would expand the private right of action by companies and workers to file illegal dumping and other unfair trade charges.
