Why the U.S. Is Imposing Anti-Dumping Tariffs on China’s Oil Well Pipes

Published in Sina
(China) on 26 November 2009
by Zhou Qing'an (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Lauren Christopher. Edited by Jessica Boesl.
CCTV commentator Zhou Qingan criticizes the anti-dumping tariffs the U.S. has imposed on China’s oil well pipes.

Why Oil Well Pipes?

Zhou Qing’an believes trade protectionism follows a simple rule. China is a large exporting country, and the larger the proportion of exports, the easier it is for protectionism to arise during recovery from the financial crisis. Citing a simple statistic provided by Russia, in 2008, half of all steel and oil well pipes in the U.S. were imported. Of these imports, 60 percent, or three out of 10 of all U.S. steel pipes, were from China. From 2006 through 2008, the amount [of steel imports] increased by 203 percent, expanding two-fold. In other words, the larger the amount of imported products, the higher the degree of [economic] crisis, the easier it is to encounter this type of protectionist trade barrier.

Encountering this sort of situation, people's initial reaction may be to think that Obama will visit soon. [The U.S. and China] will have a good talk, having previously signed an agreement stating that legal cases caused by this friction over trade will cease. But how can this be? I feel that this train of thought may be on most people’s minds, but, in fact, is quite naïve.

In Hangzhou at the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, the two sides confirmed that protectionist trade measures will not reappear. However, less than two months later, the U.S. pushed forth a series of protectionist rulings. Why is that?

In the current international trade system, long-term profits are ranked number one [in terms of priority]. Let's take this issue of steel pipes as an example. In the past two years, when the financial crisis first began and the price of oil started to fall drastically from US$140 per barrel, people did not believe there would be an issue with oil well pipes because most oil fields were not willing to increase their production. However, now that the price of natural gas is bouncing back, many oil companies are looking to recover a large scope of production and need oil well pipes to do so. U.S. steel companies have realized that, originally, oil well pipes were a market with huge profits.

Thus, we need to organize groups to lobby the U.S. government to abolish its former rules. According to the U.S. Democratic party, though, steel labor unions are a very big constituent group and are thus very important to that political party. The democratic government very well may push for compromise, for the sake of [the union's] profits. However, there is a problem here that we frequently cite: this reaction is not practical because as soon as difficulties emerge, we look to international trade for profits. Take, for example, the movie “2012;” the four ships of Noah’s Ark were all “Made in China” and built with Chinese steel. Envision, if you will, if Chinese steel was blocked by American protectionism, we may not have had the four ships of Noah’s Ark to save the 30,000 people left on Earth.

What do we do to decrease the risk of friction from trade protectionism?

In the long-term, in the face trade protectionism, we frequently assert that our businesses will transform industry, an increasingly common response from the Chinese. However, transforming industry occurs in the long-term; it is not something we can realize in the short-run. In fact, at this time, it is very important to note China’s Bao Tuan Heating Company; not all of our companies face the same anti-dumping penalties. So can all of our businesses stand united in a single response? On the other hand, many companies, especially big companies, can still set up factories abroad because the current anti-dumping penalties are aimed at steel and oil well pipes produced in China. Perhaps setting up factories overseas is the solution to this problem.


央视:美为何对华油井管征收反倾销税

http://www.sina.com.cn
2009年11月26日13:28
央视新闻频道

  作者:央视评论员周庆安

  11月25日的东方时空,央视评论员周庆安就美对华油井管征收反倾销税给与了评论。

  为什么是油井管?

  周庆安认为,贸易保护主义有一个非常简单的规律,就是中国作为一个出口大国,出口比例越大的产品,越容易在目前金融危机刚刚复苏的情况下遭遇到这种贸易保护主义。举一个特别简单的数字,是俄罗斯提供的数字,就是美国2008年它的钢管和油井管有一半是进口的,在这一半的进口中间有60%,也就是全美国钢管、油井管中有三成是从中国进口的,而从06年到08年这个比例增加了203%,就是扩大了两倍。也就是说,越是大宗的出口商品,危险度就越高,越容易遭遇到这种贸易保护主义的壁垒。

  或许有人会问,碰到这样的事情,可能所有人的第一反应就是,奥巴马才来过不久,宾主相谈甚欢,之前还签了一个协议,说我们双方不再出台这样的贸易摩擦的这种案件了,怎么会这样呢?我觉得这可能是大多数人都会考虑到的一个问题。其实这个问题是老实人遇到了新问题。

  中美商贸联合委会在杭州确定中美双方不再出台贸易保护措施,但是时隔不到两个月美国就连续进行了几次贸易保护裁定,这是为什么?

  其实在目前的国际贸易体系当中,利润永远是排在第一位的。举个例子,比如说我们看这一次钢管的问题,其实前两年,在金融危机刚刚发生,石油价格从每桶140美元开始一路狂跌的时候,没有人考虑到油井管的问题,因为大量的油田都不愿意再加大生产的比例。而现在呢,这个原油价格开始反弹。反弹之后,很多石油企业就要开始大规模恢复生产了,就需要这个油井管,那么这个时候美国的钢铁企业就发现,原来油井管是一个巨大的利润市场,就需要组团来游说美国的政府取消以往的规定。而对于美国民主党政府来说,钢铁企业是他们的一个重要的票仓,钢铁企业的工会对于民主党很重要。民主党政府很可能为了他们的利润进行妥协。但这有一个问题,我们经常举一个例子,不能因为一出现困难,我们就从国际贸易中间找利润回来。举个例子,我们现在看《2012》那个电影,那个四艘“诺亚方舟”都是中国制造,都是中国用钢制造。我们设想一下,如果这个钢当初美国人也搞贸易保护主义,或许就没有这四艘诺亚方舟,来保护全世界那3万仅存的人。

  降低贸易保护的摩擦风险,我们能做什么?

  从中长期来看,面对贸易保护主义,我们经常说我们的企业要产业转型,加大应对。但是产业转型是一个长期的问题,短期内是没办法实现的,其实现在很重要的一点,就是中国企业怎么抱团取暖,这次我们并不是所有的企业都执行同一个比例的反补贴的倾销,那所有的企业能不能合在一起来应诉。另一方面,同时就是很多企业尤其是大企业,他能不能在海外建厂,因为目前这个反补贴是针对源产于中国的钢管,如果能够在海外建厂的话,或许也是解决问题的方法。
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