Spratt Urging Obama to Address China's Unfair Trade Practices and Protect American Jobs

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) said today that he is urging President Obama to address China's use of unfair trade practices to promote the global competitiveness of its own industries.

"This is all about keeping good jobs right here in America, where they belong," said Spratt.

Spratt said he is signing a letter to the President focused specifically on China's green technology sector, which benefits from the dangerous combination of China's subsidization of its manufacturers, the Chinese government's massive investment in this technology, and the impact of China's devalued currency. For example, China is on track to produce more than half of the world's solar panels and wind turbines in 2010. 

Spratt said the letter also supports a petition filed against the Chinese government by several U.S. companies and trade organizations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 on September 9, 2010, and urges the Administration to “take prompt action to address the practices underlying this petition.” The letter also asks the President to “redirect existing resources and dedicate significant new resources to the China trade enforcement mission of the United States government,” specifically by building upon “existing capacities and expand[ing] to include additional personnel with linguistic, legal, investigative, trade and country expertise to target China’s increasingly sophisticated unfair trade practices.” 

“If the President and the USTR don’t act to address this issue in earnest, we will see even more good-paying manufacturing jobs driven from our shores,” Rep. Spratt warned. “This is a critical emerging economic sector, and we should be developing our own technologies not ceding the opportunity to the Chinese.”

“All we’re asking for here is a level playing field,” Spratt explained. “If we have that, I have absolutely no doubt that the American manufacturing sector can compete with any other in the world.”

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