CHINA/COMMERCE/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WILBUR ROSS: “The Trump administration took new action Tuesday [11-28-17] in its emerging strategy to ramp up trade pressure on Beijing, dusting off a little-used authority to combat imports of inexpensive Chinese aluminum.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told American industry executives that his department would ‘self-initiate’ an investigation into whether their Chinese competitors were illegally selling certain products below cost. It is the first time in a quarter-century that the U.S. government has initiated such a probe that wasn’t first initiated by the private sector.
The move is aimed at accelerating the process of imposing protective duties on ‘dumped’ foreign goods, and saving industry costly legal fees. It also helps to overcome the hesitance of some firms to take the lead in challenging China, for fear of retribution.
This is just the beginning of a process that is expected to play out over months. A final decision on whether to impose fresh duties on Chinese aluminum is still months away, and would require signoff from an independent trade panel before such penalties could be deployed. But administration officials emphasized the symbolic significance of the message they were intending to send.”
-Jacob M. Schlesinger, “U.S. to Probe Aluminum as It Presses China on Trade,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 28, 2017 03:22pm