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Soda ash: US senator wants Wyoming state“s soda ash industry on Beijing agenda

11 March 1999: The United States“ top foreign trade official is expected to visit Beijing to urge China to abandon unfair trade practices that are costing Wyoming state“s biggest export industry mi…

11 March 1999: The United States“ top foreign trade official is expected to visit Beijing to urge China to abandon unfair trade practices that are costing Wyoming state“s biggest export industry millions of dollars a year, a recent press report has said. In meetings with Chinese government officials, US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky plans to urge China to lower steep tariffs on imported US soda ash, and to stop “dumping” the commodity in Asian markets, according to her spokesman. Soda ash is Wyoming“s biggest export. Industry officials and federal lawmakers have complained that China is using trade barriers and subsidies to unfairly protect its fledgling domestic soda ash industry from US competition, a practice they say has caused layoffs in Wyoming and reduced the state“s tax base. “The conditions China has imposed that serve to restrict our soda ash exports are obviously a matter of substantial concern to ambassador Barshefsky,” said spokesman Jay Zieglar. The issue “will be raised.” Barshefsky and Chinese officials will discuss the terms for China“s joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), which would give the country low-tariff access to foreign markets and protect it from trade sanctions. China“s desire to join the WTO gives the United States some leverage in trying to reduce tariffs on American goods like soda ash, the report said. “We have made it clear that China must open its markets for the full spectrum of agricultural, industrial and services trade in order to join the WTO,” Zieglar said. “We would expect compliance with international rules and a wide range of reforms that would bring China“s trade practices into line with international norms.” American soda ash producers have demanded that the Clinton administration delay admitting China to the WTO until the government agrees to a schedule for cutting import duties on soda ash to 5.5%. Present tariffs run as high as 58%. In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations panel controlled by US Senator Craig Thomas, a Wyoming Republican, industry spokesmen complained recently that China“s business practices have brought the growth of Wyoming“s soda ash industry to a halt. That has forced one producer to lay-off 150 people in Sweetwater County, a reduction that could cost another 400 jobs in other sectors of the local economy. State and local tax revenues from the company have been cut by US$ 4 million a year, a spokesman for FMC-Wyoming told Congress. “Predatory pricing practices coupled with trade barriers and the downturn in the Asian economy has had a real-world impact back in our home state of Wyoming,” he said. Thomas and his fellow Wyoming Republican Senator, Michael Enzi, reportedly sent a letter to Barshefsky asking her to defend the US soda ash industry during her visit to China. “As a result of China“s complex web of tariff and non-tariff barriers, our country“s market share in China has declined from nearly 30% in the late 1980s to only 1.4% today,” Thomas and Enzi wrote. “We ask you to raise our concerns about US soda ash exports to China when you travel to meet with Chinese officials.” Dennis Kostick, a soda ash analyst at the US geological survey in Washington, said the meetings will not be the first time the US Trade Representative has come to the defence of the American soda ash industry. Several years ago, he said, the trade representative brought up soda ash at meetings in Japan, a move that eventually helped turn a trade dispute between Japanese and US producers into a partnership. Kostik said the circumstances in the current China-US dispute are different, and unlikely to be resolved the same way as the disagreement with Japan. “With the loss of 500,000 plus tons to Asia this year, I think it is important for the US to try to take a look at some of the countries where there have been obstacles,” Kostick said. “And China represents a major threat to US exports to that region.”

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