Trade Panel: China Steel Imports Violate Trade Agreements

America is fighting back against China's violations of trade agreements! Recently President Obama imposed tariffs following Chinese violations involving steel pipes [1] and tires [2]. (And jobs and factories are already starting to return [3].)

Yesterday the U.S. imposed anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese steel grating [4],

The U.S. Commerce Department has set preliminary anti-dumping duties on imports of steel grating from China, according to reports.

The duties were imposed after Chinese steel-grating imports surged to $91 million in 2008, up from $8.8 million in 2006, reports cited the U.S. Commerce Department as saying Tuesday.

U.S. trade officials assigned a preliminary duty of 145.18% to all Chinese steel grating, except those from two producers -- Ningbo Jiulong Machinery Manufacturing Co. and Sinosteel Yantai Steel Grating Co. -- whose product will reportedly only face a 14.36% duty.

Today the International Trade commission ruled unanimously that steel pipe products are subsidized by the Chinese government, and are flooding the country.

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Trade Panel Rules for Domestic Steelmakers Against Chinese Imports [5],

The U.S. International Trade Commission sided with U.S. steelmakers in a case over Chinese steel Wednesday, voting that U.S. industry has been damaged by a flood of imports of subsidized steel from China.
[. . .] U.S. Steel Corp. said it was "pleased" with the ITC's ruling on Wednesday. "This enormous surge of unfairly traded goods resulted in an overhang of inventory that crippled the domestic industry," the company said.

Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel and seven other domestic producers, along with the United Steelworkers, filed a trade complaint in April against Chinese producers and exporters, claiming China's government was subsidizing pipe-production costs.

Washington Post: ITC ruling opens door to U.S. collecting duties on Chinese steel imports [6],

The U.S. International Trade Commission has ruled that a surge of subsidized Chinese steel has harmed or threatens to harm the U.S. industry, in one of the largest ever trade cases involving the two countries.

The volume of steel pipes imported from China more than tripled between 2006 and 2008, rising from $632 million to $2.6 billion, according to the Commerce Department.

The case means that the United States can collect duties on the Chinese imports.

"This is great news for the U.S. steel industry," said Roger Schagrin, attorney for the U.S. steelmakers and the United Steelworkers union.

... According to the six U.S. companies that filed the complaint along with the United Steelworkers, Chinese government subsidies to steelmakers allowed the Chinese firms to overwhelm their U.S. rivals. The U.S. companies alleged that their Chinese rivals received discounts on raw materials and loans from government-owned firms.

The usual suspects [7] are shocked that America would dare to enforce trade agreements!
From a CNN report [8],

University of Maryland professor Peter Morici has written that this trade gap "threatens to torpedo the economic recovery and keep unemployment above 10% for the foreseeable future."