U.S. Files Trade Case Against China Over Cars
The United States on Monday filed a broad trade case against China at the World Trade Organization, alleging unfair subsidies for exports of cars and auto parts. While China exports virtually no fully assembled cars to the United States, it has rapidly expanded exports to developing countries, and those exports compete to some extent with cars exported from or designed in the United States. In its W.T.O. filing, the United States accuses China of providing at least $1 billion worth of subsidies from 2009 to 2011 for worldwide exports of cars and auto parts.
Hours after news of the American move began to circulate, but before the trade case was actually filed in Beijing, Chinas commerce ministry announced in a statement on its Web site that it was filing its own W.T.O. case against the United States, alleging unfairness in how the United States calculates the penalty tariffs in anti-subsidy cases.
Chinese officials strongly criticized Mr. Obama last winter for not blocking solar panel trade cases against China, accusing him of playing politics with trade. But
as Mr. Romney has called for a more confrontational trade policy toward China, the state media have become highly critical in recent weeks of Mr. Romney as well.
It is rather ironic that a considerable portion of this China-battering politicians wealth was actually obtained by doing business with Chinese companies before he entered politics, Xinhua, the state-run news agency, said in a commentary Friday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/business/global/us-files-wto-case-against-china-over-cars.html?pagewanted=all