More on Obama's trade strategy

The Obama Administration's decision to impose tariffs on tires should not come as a surprise. Testimony by the U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk in March and the Administration's official statements of its trade policy since January suggest that the Administration would take advantage of authority it has under current trade agreements to push US trading partners on issues of concern to the US. Edward Gresser advises us not to hyperventilate about the tire decision - similar actions have been taken frequently by previous presidents and by other countries.

Each year the World Trade Organization counts 100 to 200 of them [temporary tariffs] around the world, usually imposed through the “anti-dumping” and “countervailing duty” laws many countries have passed to defend industries against predatory export practices, such as below-cost sales and government subsidies.

India is the most frequent user of these laws, imposing about 30 anti-dumping penalties a year since 2000. The United States is a bit less enthusiastic, imposing about 15 anti-dumping cases a year. China and the European Union also record about 15 cases a year. According to the U.S. Commerce Department, China now maintains penalty tariffs like these on 17 types of American goods, including tariffs ranging up to 46 percent on optical fiber, 61 percent on Spandex, and 91 percent on chloroform. And a week before the administration’s tariff decision, in fact, the Chinese Commerce Ministry renewed anti-dumping tariffs on a grade of Russian, Japanese and Korean rubber known as “styrene butadiene” used precisely to make automobile tires.