Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) applauded on Friday the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) recent ruling that China must rescind anti-dumping duties countervailing duties on American automobile exports.
Portman and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who previously urged the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to investigate the tariffs, praised the WTO’s decision.
“I first raised strong concerns with these unfounded Chinese actions nearly three years ago, and today’s ruling is a victory for auto workers in Ohio and across the country,” Portman, the co-chairman of the Senate Auto Caucus, said. “China remains a vital export market for American goods and services, but China must follow global trade rules, and when they don’t, we’ll hold them accountable every time.”
Portman previously spearheaded the first legal case against China that was litigated and won before the WTO. The case was in response to China’s treatment of automobile parts that were made in the United States.
The United States exports $8.5 billion worth of automobiles to China each year. In 2011, however, China imposed anti-dumping duties on American-made cars that ranged from two to 21.5 percent, and countervailing duties that ranged from 6.2 to 12.9 percent.
The WTO ruled on May 23 that China had “inaccurately and improperly” determined that U.S. automobile exports hurt its economy, failed to back up its claim that the automobiles were dumped or subsidized, and violated transparency provisions of WTO agreements.
“In order to protect the one in every eight Ohio jobs connected to the auto industry, we must ensure our manufacturers are competing on a level playing field,” Brown, the vice chairman of the Senate Auto Caucus, said. “To achieve this, our trading partners need to abide by WTO rules.”