President Obama and Vice President Biden will have something major on trade to brag about to their union allies this Labor Day.
In a major victory for the Obama administration and unions, the United States has won final approval from the World Trade Organization to continue slapping high tariffs on Chinese tire imports.
The WTO Appellate Body on Monday ruled in Geneva that safeguard tariffs imposed by President Obama on China two years ago were legal under WTO rules.
Obama had imposed the penalties for three years in response to a petition filed by the United Steelworkers union and findings by the U.S. International Trade Commission.
“This is a tremendous victory for the United States as well as for American workers and manufacturers. We have said all along that President Obama’s decision to impose duties on Chinese tires was fully consistent with our WTO obligations,” said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
A lower WTO panel last December first denied China's claims that the U.S. tariffs were inconsistent with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and with China's protocol of accession to the WTO.
On Monday the Appellate Body agreed and determined that the U.S. was correct in all counts.
The U.S. in the case had to show that low cost tires coming in from China were “increasing rapidly” so as to be a “significant cause” of material injury to the domestic tire industry.
Biden is slated to address the AFL-CIO federation, of which the United Steelworkers are a part, later Monday in Cincinnati.
