One of America’s most powerful unions is accusing China of unfairly cornering the world renewable energy manufacturing market by using protectionist and anti-competitive trade practices; and is calling the Obama Administration to protect green energy jobs in the US.
The United Steel Workers Union (USW) has filed a 5,800 page petition with the United States Trade Representative detailing five areas of what it calls “predatory and protectionist” strategies that it says undermine American labour laws and allow China to develop their renewable energy sector at the expense of green job creation and alternative energy production in the US.
The case addresses China’s alleged activities in five key areas:
– Restrictions on access to critical materials
– Performance requirements for investors
– Discrimination against foreign firms and goods
– Prohibited export subsidies and prohibited domestic content subsidies
– Trade distorting domestic subsidies
“Green jobs are key to our future,” said Leo W. Gerard, International President of the USW. “Right now, China is taking every possible step – many of them illegal under international trade laws – to ensure that it will control that sector. America can’t afford to cede more of its manufacturing base to China.”
As the American economy struggles in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and fears of a double-dip recession, the union says the White House needs to make good on its promise to deliver a thriving market in solar power, wind energy and other renewable energy sources.
The USW is the largest industrial union in North America and has 850,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. They say their workers are involved at every level of the green energy sector in the US.
“It’s a national priority to reduce our dependence on foreign energy supplies. But if all we do is exchange our dependence on foreign oil for a dependence on Chinese alternative and renewable energy production equipment, we will have traded away our nation’s energy, economic and job security.”
By law the Obama Administration has 45 days to decide whether to accept the USW petition for further action
