Trade talks fail, US presses for WTO arbitration over tariff

US regulators have requested that two trade cases currently under negotiation with China be referred to the WTO for arbitration, reported London's Financial Times.


While trade talks between the two countries have been underway since September, US negotiators say they can go no further and now seek WTO arbitration. Once a WTO dispute panel is formed, it takes 12 to 18 months for a ruling to emerge, said Reuters.


"We are troubled by procedures and decision-making employed by China in its trade remedy investigations, which have now led to serious restrictions on exports of American steel," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said.


The US says China made anti-dumping charges against the US and levied countervailing duties on American steel without sufficient evidence of unfair pricing practices or government subsidies, the trade office said.


"We have watched with growing concern China's resort to additional duties on US exports," said Mr Kirk. "We also remain concerned about China's continuing efforts to reserve its domestic payment card market for one state-owned enterprise, to the exclusion of American credit and debit card companies."


This case involves foreign payment card company access to China UnionPay, the country's domestic payment system. The US says China has failed to live up to its open market commitments made in 2006.


Over the past decade, the People's Bank of China has issued regulations that give China UnionPay a monopoly over the handling of transactions done in China's domestic currency while excluding other potential suppliers, said the US trade representative.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)