WASHINGTON, Dec 21: A group of mostly Southern senators are urging US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to consider taking legal action against China for failing to honor its commitment to open its cotton market.
In a letter this week, the 11 senators urged Zoellick to begin dispute settlement proceedings against China at the World Trade Organization if the US trade officials cannot resolve the issue through consultations with Beijing.
The bipartisan group included both senators from each of the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, which are all major cotton producers. Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and California were also represented on the list.
The Dec. 18 letter follows a similar plea for action from the National Cotton Council earlier this month. That group represents all segments of the US cotton industry.
The senators and the industry complain China has not lived up the commitments it made when it joined the WTO last year.
The most serious shortcoming in China’s approach is its clear intent to deny national treatment for imported cotton fiber, the cotton group said. China’s regulations unfairly restrict cotton fiber imports by requiring that textile products made from the imported fiber be reexported.
Despite that, US Agriculture Department figures show US cotton sales to China are up sharply this year.
VIETNAM: A group of US senators on Friday urged the Bush administration not to impose steep import duties on catfish from Vietnam.
With the Commerce Department nearing a decision on the issue, the senators argued the anti-dumping duties of up to 190 per cent being sought by U.S. catfish farmers would harm recently improved trade relations with the former war enemy.
They would also raise catfish prices for US consumers, the senators said.
The letter to US Commerce Secretary Don Evans was signed by Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, both veterans of the US war with Vietnam.
Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins, both Maine Republicans, and Sen. Diane Feinstein, a California Democrat, also added their signatures.
The Commerce Department will decide in January on the U.S. catfish industry’s request for anti-dumping duties.
US catfish farmers say they have been harmed by a surge in imports of “tra” and “basa” fish from Vietnam that are being sold in the United States at less than fair value.
The catfish fight is the first big trade spat to emerge between the two countries since they ratified an historic bilateral trade pact last year.
The evidence we have seen indicates clearly that the success of Vietnamese catfish exporters in the US market is due not to dumping or government subsidies, the senators said.
Instead, Vietnam has gained US market share because of the quality of its product and the relatively low cost of production in Vietnam, they added.
The US catfish industry enjoys considerable political support in Congress, despite the five senators’ letter.
Recent US legislation prohibits the Vietnamese fish from being labeled as “catfish” in the United States because it has a different scientific family name than the US species.—Reuters