On Thursday, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said that the US has officially requested consultations with the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding its allegations that China has imposed unfair duties on over $3 billion of US-produced automobiles.
United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard commented, "Last year, Chinese consumers purchased roughly 18 million vehicles. But they allowed only 106,000 vehicles made by US workers into their market. Obviously, for the Chinese, even that was too many. They are flooding our market with auto parts that are produced with massive illegal Chinese subsidies and benefit from numerous other predatory and protectionist policies. Their exports to the United States have contributed to the loss of more than 400,000 jobs in the auto parts sector. Imports of Chinese auto parts have skyrocketed by almost 900 percent since 2000."