Beijing welcomes Bush decision on steel pipe imports
Beijing welcomed a decision by US President George W. Bush to reject calls for a quota on Chinese imports of standard steel tubing. Commenting on the decision, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said, "The Chinese side believes that the policies the US government has adopted up to now in these special protection cases help the healthy and stable trade relations of the two countries". US steel pipe producers asked for a quota on Chinese pipe exports to the US market with the claim that they were suffering from cheap imports. The US International Trade Commission (ITC) also recommended institution of a yearly quota of 160,000 tons on Chinese steel pipe imports. However, Bush indicated that since many other countries also supply steel pipes to the U.S. market, any curbs on Chinese pipes would likely be replaced by imports from third countries. Therefore, even if a quota is instituted on Chinese pipe imports, domestic pipe producers would not really benefit from this restriction.