Import Fees

Who could resent the attention being showered on electric cars? Stylish and clean, they're the darling of the renewable-energy crowd, which is hailing the scheduled rollout of several e-powered models next year as a major blow against global warming. Well, Eduardo Leao, for one. He's executive director of the Brazil's largest sugar industry association, called UNICA, and he insists that cane-based ethanol produced in massive quantities by his members is a better alternative fuel for the environment than electricity.

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 ruling 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.

The Senate voted 55 to 41 Wednesday to strip from the omnibus trade bill a provision requiring the President to impose an oil import fee or import quotas whenever the United States seems ready to import more than half the oil it consumes. The action, the first taken by the Senate on a key provision of the mammoth package, was a direct defeat for Finance Committee Chairman Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) and for the beleaguered domestic oil industry.

Who could resent the attention being showered on electric cars? Stylish and clean, they're the darling of the renewable-energy crowd, which is hailing the scheduled rollout of several e-powered models next year as a major blow against global warming. Well, Eduardo Leao, for one. He's executive director of the Brazil's largest sugar industry association, called UNICA, and he insists that cane-based ethanol produced in massive quantities by his members is a better alternative fuel for the environment than electricity.

Your editorial (April 5), "Kicking the Cat," could just as well have been titled, "Kicking the Consumer." Any trade or import restrictions placed on the Japanese will cause import prices to rise and will be paid by the consumer. It would be truly unfortunate if our Congress, in an attempt to increase tax revenues, blames the Japanese for our own problems. The Japanese did not create the budget deficits that help to keep the dollar strong by attracting foreign capital to invest in our high-paying Treasury securities.

As a disabled veteran of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Arik Vamosh belongs to one of the most honored groups in Israeli society. But when the wheelchair-bound father of two tried to import a small elevator he needs to get around in his new multi-story home, the Israeli customs service demanded $8,000 in purchase and import taxes.

The Bush administration will propose anti-dumping duties on as much as $1 billion in imported Chinese bedroom furniture, officials said Thursday, escalating a trade dispute that has strained U.S.-China relations and splintered the domestic furniture industry. The preliminary ruling in a long-running anti-dumping case will be announced today by the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration, according to the officials, who asked not to be named.

The graffiti, freshly scribbled on the concrete wall of the new business school building at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, says bluntly: "Stop GATT." In Washington, a rap recording is being circulated among trade specialists, its lyrics hammering away at the agreement that rewrites the rules of international commerce. What's going on here? Last autumn, the North American Free Trade Agreement polarized American political opinion.

A former U.S. Customs supervisor was indicted Tuesday on charges of embezzling cash and checks collected from more than 10,000 passengers at Los Angeles International Airport. Betty J. Jones, 38, is accused of stealing an estimated $840,000 collected at the Tom Bradley International Terminal during 1986 and 1987, using the proceeds to buy fur coats and fly her friends to Las Vegas on gambling vacations. U.S. Atty.

Mexico enhanced its status this week as a global platform for automobile production--and as the hemisphere's most adventuresome free trader--by signing a trade accord with Brazil that will give its industry greater access to showrooms in Latin America's largest economy.

A White House official Saturday defended President Obama's decision to levy steep tariffs on tires from China, denying that it was an act of trade protectionism, as Chinese officials charged, or was intended to make a statement about the administration's broader strategy on trade policy. "This is certainly not an action directed against globalization," said the official, who requested anonymity when discussing White House thinking, a day after Obama moved to add a 35% duty on automobile and light-truck tires.

A group of Midwestern Democrats is pushing for tariffs on products from countries that don't limit greenhouse gas emissions, a controversial step that the legislators say is needed to help American manufacturers survive expected emissions restrictions here. The Democrats say the measure would level the playing field for U.S. factories, which will probably face increased energy costs due to global warming legislation backed by the Obama administration. The legislation narrowly passed in the House in June and is pending in the Senate.

The World Trade Organization made public its first official condemnation of Chinese commercial practices Friday, releasing a February ruling that sided with the United States, the European Union and Canada in a dispute over car parts. The verdict found that China was breaking trade rules by taxing imports of auto parts at the same rate as foreign-made finished cars. The three-member WTO panel ruled against China on nearly every point of contention with the U.S., the 27-nation EU and Canada.

The government rescinded Friday a controversial tax increase on grain exports that had sparked months of protests and bared deep divisions in one of the world's major food-producing nations. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner pulled back the tax without comment a day after a stunning rejection by the Senate made possible by a crucial "no" vote by her own vice president.

The U.S. filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over European tariffs on three categories of high-tech goods, including flat-panel computer monitors and some printers. The duties, which are as high as 14%, make U.S. exports less competitive in the European Union, according to the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade association whose members include Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.

The World Trade Organization agreed to probe a European Union complaint that the method the U.S. uses to calculate import duties illegally inflates tariffs imposed on EU goods such as steel, chemicals and pasta. The calculation, called zeroing, enables the U.S. to maximize customs duties by selectively excluding some market price data. The U.S. used the methodology to work out whether imports from the EU were sold below cost, or dumped, on the domestic market.

Most of the time, talk of this island's pending entry into the World Trade Organization goes right over Bei Hong-jou's head. She has no use for its jargon of tariffs, import quotas and the like. But in one respect, Taiwan's WTO accession hits Bei right in the gut--literally. On Jan. 1, the price of the rice wine that Bei and millions of other Taiwanese use to flavor their foods--everything from ginger duck to medicinal dishes--will soar more than 500%.

A White House official Saturday defended President Obama's decision to levy steep tariffs on tires from China, denying that it was an act of trade protectionism, as Chinese officials charged, or was intended to make a statement about the administration's broader strategy on trade policy. "This is certainly not an action directed against globalization," said the official, who requested anonymity when discussing White House thinking, a day after Obama moved to add a 35% duty on automobile and light-truck tires.

The U.S. Commerce Department said it was imposing additional preliminary duties of as much as 99.7% on imports of glossy paper from China. The decision came in the second of two cases brought by a U.S. paper manufacturer against imports from China, South Korea and Indonesia. The paper is the type used in art books, high-end magazines, textbooks and annual reports.

China's government said Monday that it was trying to shrink its swollen trade surplus but reported that its monthly gap soared to the second-highest level on record in February amid threats of possible U.S. sanctions. Commerce Minister Bo Xilai criticized proposed U.S. punitive tariffs as a violation of free trade and said they would hurt American companies. "The Chinese government never intends to pursue a large-scale trade surplus with others," Bo said.