Let me juxtapose several current articles relating to China trade issues. First, from the Oregonian, by Rich Read, an article “Solar World, facing fight for survival, seeks tariffs on cheap Chinese products flooding the U.S. market” (here)
SolarWorld and six other companies filed a trade complaint against China on Wednesday, underscoring the intense pressure they face as cheap Chinese cells and panels flood the U.S. market.
SolarWorld, a German company that employs 1,000 in Hillsboro, seeks tariffs of more than 100 percent on imports that its coalition says are destroying the U.S. solar industry. The trade case is one of the largest filed against China, in terms of value -- China’s solar imports to the U.S. so far this year exceed $1.7 billion. It aims to protect a sector that Oregon officials have nurtured as a successor to the semiconductor manufacturing industry, much of which has moved offshore because of similar price pressures…..
Second, both of Oregon’s senators are huffing and puffing about this case, as Keith Bradsher’s NY Times article “U.S. Solar Panel Makers Says China Violated Trade Rules” reports (here):
…. Two Democratic senators on Wednesday joined the news conference in Washington announcing the trade case, which is being led by an Oregon solar panel maker, SolarWorld Industries America.
“American solar operations should be rapidly expanding to keep pace with the skyrocketing demand for these products,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. “But that is not what has been happening,” Mr. Wyden said. “There seems to be one primary explanation for this; that is, that China is cheating.”
He was joined by his Oregon colleague Senator Jeff Merkley, also a Democrat, who said China was engaging in “rogue practices.” ….
Bradsher also points out:
….For one thing, if successful, it would drive up the price of solar energy in the name of trying to breathe life into a flagging American industry. High costs have already kept solar power from becoming more than a niche energy source in the United States….
And:
China exports 95 percent of its production, much of it to the United States, which has helped push wholesale solar panel prices down from $3.30 a watt of capacity in 2008 to $1.80 by last January and now to $1.20. A typical solar panel might have a capacity of 230 watts.
Third, Tom Friedman has an op-ed column ”Imagined in America” on the Chinese currency issue. He writes (here)
After spending last week talking with Hong Kong entrepreneurs about a bill, just passed by the U.S. Senate, to clear the way for tariffs on Chinese exports to America if China doesn’t revalue its currency, there are three things I have to say. One, I really hope the people pushing this bill do not give up. Two, I really hope the people pushing this bill do not succeed. And, three, I really hope no one thinks this legislation will make any sustainable dent in our unemployment problem, which requires much more radical rethinking…..
My thoughts:
(1) I’m glad the seven solar companies filed the trade complaint. Let’s air the issue, getting all the relevant fact out in public. Let’s see what those facts are and let’s see if the WTO process works.
(2) For the environment, and our cost-of-living, I’m glad the cost of solar power is dropping so rapidly. It is in all our interests to get that cost below the cost of carbon-based electric power generation.
(3) I agree completely with Friedman, for now. China needs a wake-up call, not the opening broadside of a trade war. And the US needs to deal with its fundamentals.
(4) I wish Wyden and Merkley would redirect some of their huffing and puffing on trade issues towards our complacent business and educational establishments in Oregon. We need to go after the growing markets in China, not just play defense. We need to change. We need to become much more aggressive in marketing our products in China. To do so, we need an educational system that produces Mandarin fluent graduates who have spent time in China. Wyden and Merkley need to call out educational leaders who oppose expanding Mandarin immersion and high school study abroad in China programs. They need to play offense as well as defense. They are not.
(5) China is not the major source of our current economic difficulties.
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