WSJ: Let China Play by the Rules We Do

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703436504574640493975897958.html

LETTERS JANUARY 7, 2010, 6:12 P.M. ET

For you to say that the ITC's response to China's dumping exports of tubular steel is "Steeling from Americans" (Review & Outlook, Dec. 31) is like giving Bernie Madoff a "get out of jail" card.

China flat-out cheats in its trade practices, and it just got caught—again—by the U.S. International Trade Commission. China's exporters will now be legally required to pay tariffs.

China's currency manipulation and illegal subsidies give it an unfair advantage against U.S. manufacturers, and its labor, intellectual property and environmental protections are grossly inadequate.

Yes, the U.S. must confront the challenges of a global market, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't closely monitor current international trade and economic practices, plus any adverse impacts from them on our nation's competitiveness.

America's overall trade deficit this year with China alone will exceed $250 billion, and our former trade surplus in critical high-technology products, including high-tech steel, is now a growing deficit in its own right.

Most Americans strongly believe that our nation's international economic and trade policies are undermining our nation's standard of living, and ultimately our national security. Yet with typical pure free-trade orthodoxy your editorial wrongly claims that enforcing the rules China agreed to when it joined the World Trade Organization is protectionism. This blind adherence to ideology over rules-based trade undermines confidence in our trading system.

Making America's trade policies fairer and furthering American jobs is absolutely not protectionism. Chinese mercantilism is a continuing and growing problem that must be addressed.

Leo W. Gerard

International President

United Steelworkers

Pittsburgh

Chinese Stock Mkt and China is our banker.( China has loaned
us money to pay for wars(Bush) and now bailouts and stimulus.