Good cop

26 August 2010 By Christopher Swann

The White House s tighter dumping rules look like an economic owngoal, robbing shoppers of lower prices while irking China. But Obama is seeking to head off still more damaging moves from Congress. Behind the rhetoric, his policies look slightly more tradefriendly.

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The United States on Aug. 26 announced plans to toughen rules against what it sees as unfair foreign trade practices, proposing a number of changes likely to irritate China, its biggest supplier of imports.

"The Obama administration is committed to aggressively enforcing our trade laws to ensure a level playing field for U.S. companies and their workers the engines of our economic growth," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement. "Today's announcement is another demonstration of our continuing efforts to sharpen our trade enforcement tools."

At least some of the proposals could lead to higher antidumping or countervailing duties on goods from China, which has been the most frequent target of U.S. complaints about unfair trade in recent years.

But the plan seeks to strengthen the effectiveness of U.S. trade protection measures "across a range of areas," a senior Commerce Department official told Reuters. "This is a process that will play out during the course of the fall."

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