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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2010
35
From the
americas
The action and reaction – penalty followed by denunciation
– are an old story by now, and after many repetitions it is
difficult not to detect an element of stagecraft here. Further
instalments may be expected probably for as long as China
makes and exports products made of steel.
This latest episode is perhaps notable for its timing, coming
as it did just a week after the two big powers concluded
high-level strategic and economic talks that were hailed for
their progress in improving ties. It also preceded by only
weeks the G-20 summit in Toronto at which China and the
US drew closer to each other on fiscal issues.
Trade remedy cases by the United States against China
❖
❖
originate with industry and consumer groups such as
the United Steelworkers union, which repeatedly has
claimed that low-priced imports from China cause job
losses at home. Experts in both nations expected the
number of these cases to grow this year; but, given the
developing prospects for China-US trade, they saw little
likelihood of a trade war erupting between the two.
“[2010] will continue to be hard for Chinese exporters,”
said He Weien, a World Trade Organization expert with
the China Society for American Economy Studies, in
the beginning of the year. “Trade remedy cases from the
US will surge as the unemployment rate will remain high
[there]. But a trade war cannot easily happen.” (“Cases
Won’t Spark US-China Trade War,” reported by Ding
Qingfen,
China Daily
, 23
rd
January)
Telecom
The expansion of high-speed wireless
broadband services in the US has a
booster in high places:
one Barack Obama
The Obama administration hopes to nearly double the
wireless communications spectrum available for commercial
use in the US over the next 10 years, an effort that could
greatly enhance the ability of consumers to send and
receive video and data with smart phones and other
hand-held devices.
Mr Obama on 28
th
June signed a presidential memorandum
aimed at making available for auction some 500 megahertz
of spectrum now controlled by the federal government and
private companies. Roughly 45% of the spectrum to be
auctioned would come from federal agencies that will be
asked to give up allocations that they are not using or could
share. Most of that would be slated for commercial use in
mobile broadband and similar applications.
Lawrence H Summers, the director of the National Economic
Council and assistant to the president for economic policy,
looks for great things from the initiative. “[It] will catalyze
private sector investment, contribute to economic growth,
and help to create hundreds of thousands of jobs,”
Mr Summers said in a statement. “This policy is a win three
times over. It creates prosperity and jobs while at the same
time raising revenue for public purposes like public safety
and increasing our ability to compete internationally.”