On Friday, China filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against the US' duties on 22 Chinese products, including a multitude of steel products and most recently, solar panels. The complaint covers $7.3 billion in Chinese exports. In a statement, China's Ministry of Commerce said that "China firmly opposes the abuse of trade remedy measures and trade protectionism."
Also on Friday, in its semi-annual report to Congress on exchange rate policies, the US Treasury department said that while it will "closely monitor" the Chinese yuan, and will push China to strengthen what it calls a "significantly undervalued currency," it would not officially label the country as a "currency manipulator."
The American Iron and Steel Institute's President and CEO Thomas J. Gibson was displeased with the decision, and issued the following statement: "AISI is disappointed that US Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has once again side-stepped his obligation to address China's currency manipulation. While we are encouraged that the Administration recognized that China greatly undervalues its currency, it has again missed an opportunity to use all of the tools available to it to address the massive damage that China's severely undervalued currency is causing to our nation's manufacturing sector. Given the priority of job creation and our still fragile recovery, our government must take all necessary steps to ensure that American companies and workers are competing on a level playing field."