EuroWire January 2016

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Transatlantic cable
January 2016 39
investigations into the company. And, even as Bloomberg
reported, the diesel-emissions scandal continued to widen.
Earlier on 20th November, CARB and EPA said they had expanded
a notice of violation to include all 3.0-litre diesel-powered
autos from model years 2009 through 2016 that originally went
back only to 2014. The broader allegation covers about 85,000
Volkswagen Group vehicles: VW, Audi and Porsche.
Bloomberg also reported that Volkswagen is facing demands
for mitigation of the e ects of its cheating. They wrote: “Of
the almost half a million dirty diesels that VW sold in the USA,
roughly 60,000 – or 12 per cent – were sold in California. Many
of those belong to relatively a uent, green-minded consumers
who live in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles region.”
But emissions often get blown into the Central Valley, where
air quality is among the worst in the state and asthma rates for
children among the highest. CARB is developing an inventory of
the pollution spewed into the air as a result of VW’s cheating by
looking at the number of miles driven and the emissions pro le
of each of the three engine groups. As declared on the CARB
website: “VW will be held accountable for the extra emissions
that the vehicles released to the air.”
† Advocacy groups are pushing for a mitigation fund that
could total hundreds of millions of dollars to address the
excess emissions of smog-producing nitrogen oxide. And
the Greenlining Institute, a non-pro t based in Berkeley,
wants Volkswagen to o er incentives to help low- and
moderate-income Californians drive electric vehicles,
such as subsidised leases for its electric Golf. Ms Hull and
Mr Plungis observed: “[Greenlining] also suggests that VW
pay for charging stations and electric-vehicle car-sharing in
disadvantaged communities.”
Steel
Large American steel producers say a
WTO reclassi cation of China as a market
economy would render trade cases ine ective
China, which has expanded its domestic steel industry and
stepped up its steel exports in recent years, is lobbying for
recognition as a market economy when its World Trade
Organization designation as a government-controlled economy
expires in December 2016.
China joined the WTO in 2001 and has said it believes
its agreement with the organisation enables it to attain
market-economy status after 15 years. As noted by Alex Nixon
in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (12th November), the changed
designation would make it harder for US steel makers to
demonstrate the dumping of steel in the American market by
Chinese competitors.
The US Commerce Department consults prices in other
countries to determine the extent to which steel imports
undercut domestic companies. With China’s reclassi cation,
import duties would be based on prices in China that are held to
whatever level is set by Beijing.
US Steel Corp CEO Mario Longhi and other leading industry
executives say the proposed change would decimate struggling
American steel producers, expected to face even greater
pressure from China as its economy cools and exports grow.