AMERICA FIRST POLICY: Duty on washing machines, solar panels to check foreign firms -
Beijing/Seoul: China and South Korea are criticising a US decision to introduce steep tariffs on imported washing machines, solar energy cells and panels.
South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun Chong will lodge a complaint against the move at the World Trade Organization (WTO), his office said on Tuesday. The US measures, which include setting up tariffs of up to 50 per cent for imported washing machines, were “unfair,” Kim said at a meeting of industry representatives.
South Korean home appliance manufacturers Samsung and LG, as well as Chinese solar energy firms are likely to be most affected by the measures, which aim to protect US manufacturers against foreign competition, as part of President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.
China said the decision is detrimental to global trade in these fields and illustrative of Washington’s “excessive and frequent trade protection,” according to a statement by Wang Hejun, director of the ministry’s Bureau of Trade Relief Investigation. The solar tariffs, approved on Monday by Trump, start at 30 per cent and are set to gradually fall to 15 per cent over the next four years. Trump’s decision was in keeping with the conclusions of his trade advisers, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said.
“The president’s action makes clear again that the Trump administration will always defend American workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses in this regard,” Lighthizer said.
Trump’s move was defended by the influential head of investment firm Blackstone, Stephen Schwarzman, who was speaking during the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
Beijing’s import tariffs have been three times as high as Washington’s to date, Schwarzman said on Tuesday, adding that the trade relationship between the two sides had to become fairer. — dpa
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