Obama launches trade complaint against China

President accuses China of subsidising exports of automobile
parts.

Barack Obama has issued a formal trade complaint to the World
Trade Organisation against China, accusing the Asian power of
‘illegally’ subsidising exports on automobile parts, say currency
exchange experts, Currencies Direct.

The President, who has often lambasted China’s trading policies,
believes subsidisation is putting American manufacturing at a
distinct disadvantage, affecting both US competition and
production. Officials working on behalf of Obama confirmed the
President had launched enforcement action at the WTO on Monday,
indicting China of subsidising automobile parts illegally.

China’s trading policy has long been a matter of controversy in
America. In the decade between 2001 and 2011 jobs in the automobile
sector dropped by 50% in the US, while imports of auto parts from
China rocketed. Both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have vowed to get
tough on Chinese trade if they win the presidency in November.

After a weekend away from the spotlight, both candidates were
back on the campaign trail on Monday, and back to exchanging
trading barbs.

Speaking in Ohio, a swing state with a large manufacturing base,
Mr Obama took another opportunity to criticise Mitt Romney’s past
interests in China, accusing the Republican presidential candidate
of outsourcing jobs to China when running the private equity firm,
Bain Capital.

Similarly Romney released a TV advert last week accusing the
President of ‘failing American workers’.  On the issues of
trade, Romney has persistently branded the President as ‘weak’,
citing the Dollars depreciation against other world currencies
during Obama’s first-term in office as an example.