United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard this week released the following statement in response to the U.S. Department of Commerce's (Washington, D.C., USA) notice that it was seeking public comment on whether China is a non-market economy.

"Given that the last review of China's status as a non-market economy occurred in 2006, today's request is most appropriate. While more than a decade has passed, the USW's (Pittsburg, Pa., USA) experience with China makes it clear that its non-market economy continues. Granting China market economy status would be contrary to the facts as well as serving to devastate domestic producers and workers.

"The preferential status China is seeking would allow them to dump more unfairly priced products into the market, while claiming to abide to market economics. Nobody who understands China's economic policies, and deals with the reality of those policies in the marketplace, can honestly argue that China is a market economy.

"A provision in China's original accession agreement to the World Trade Organization allowed member countries to automatically treat China as a non-market economy. It expired last December. Since the expiration, the only change was that the U.S. would utilize the existing statutory tests that determine whether a country is operating as a market economy. China continues to fail our legal test, providing no reason to grant it favorable, but undeserved treatment under trade law.

"If other countries decide to disregard the facts and bow to China's political pressure to grant them market economy (MES) status, we must evaluate whether new tools are necessary to address the market impact of those decisions. How other countries treat the unfairly traded imports from China has an impact on both our exports to and our imports from those marketplaces.

"The U.S. is on firm ground here. Nine of the top 10 users of the antidumping remedy continue to treat China as a non-market economy. The factual analysis and update that Commerce is undertaking will make it clear that China is not operating according to free market principles, which is the foundation of the world trading system.

"Domestic producers and workers in paper, steel, aluminum, rubber, and many other sectors have suffered the consequences of China's policies. Ignoring the facts now will only devastate America's economy."

The USW represents 850,000 workers in North America employed in many industries that include paper, metals, rubber, chemicals, oil refining, and the service and public sectors.