China Subsidies for Clean Energy Are Illegal, Union Says

[BeyondGeography]

HONG KONG — The United Steelworkers union plans to file a legal case with the Obama administration on Thursday, accusing China of violating World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing exports of clean energy equipment, the union’s president and his advisers said. The filing, more than 5,000 pages long and 18 inches thick, contends that the central government in Beijing and China’s provincial governments have used land grants, low-interest loans and dozens of other measures that violate W.T.O. rules.

The union says the violations have helped Chinese companies expand their share of the world market for wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear power plants and other clean energy equipment, at the expense of jobs in the United States and elsewhere. The filing asks the Obama administration to begin formal proceedings at the W.T.O. in Geneva to force China to repeal the subsidies. “Unless China’s policies are urgently addressed, the U.S. may never get a fair shot at making the green technologies of the future,” the filing says.

Trade lawyers in Washington have been saying for months that China’s export subsidies for clean energy were so extensive that sooner or later, they expected a trade case to be filed. But multinational companies and trade associations in the clean energy business, as in many other industries, have been wary of doing so, fearing Chinese officials’ reputation for retaliating against joint ventures in their country and potentially denying market access to any company that takes sides against China.

With clean energy a stated priority of the Obama administration, as a jobs generator and for environmental reasons, the union says it hopes to gain support for its case by injecting the trade issue into the autumn Congressional campaigns...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/business/energy-environment/10steel.html?_r=1&hp

This follows yesterday's NYT story on the impact of China's government on the global clean energy market:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/business/global/09trade.html?pagewanted=1&hp

[Kolesar]

1. another thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4533548
important topic, imo