The Latin American Steel Association (Alacero) issued a statement today in response to China withdrawing its claim with the WTO to be recognized as a market economy by the European Union. Alacero said the ruling is important to Latin America because it “implies a precedent for all the steel products that come from China, since it confirms what the steel industry has been affirming for many years: China is not a market economy.”
“We've known for a long time that China has been a problem due to all the subsidies its industry receives which have distorted the global steel market,” the association said in a statement. “This has been generating a loss of employment and industrial development in Latin America because the local industry cannot compete in unfair and uneven competition. The world has sought to defend itself from the global overcapacity caused by China and many countries have imposed measures to mitigate the effects of this unfair trade.”
Alacero said that while 65 percent of Latin America’s current antidumping cases regarding steel are against China, “the mechanism has not appeared to be sufficient or effective.” The association said the withdrawal of China from its market economy demand “provides a new and solid argument to advance in the defense of markets increasingly affected by unfair competition.”