NCTO: China Has Not Earned Market Economy Status

WASHINGTON, DC – The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) continued its call for the Obama administration to reject China’s request that it should be designated a market economy under the World Trade Organization (WTO).  China is seeking a formal designation as a market economy on December 11, 2016, the 15th anniversary of the country’s accession to the WTO.  Currently, the U.S. Commerce Department treats China as a non-market economy when calculating anti-dumping margins and other trade remedies.

“Treating China as a market economy would defy logic,” said NCTO President & CEO Augustine Tantillo.

“China’s chronic misallocation of investment to expand its state-owned enterprises in the textile supply chain and in other industrial sectors where there is an excess of global capacity invariably leads to Chinese dumping and other non-free-market economic practices,” Tantillo continued.

“Those actions hurt the global economy and should not be rewarded by the United States,” Tantillo added.

Tantillo also noted NCTO’s support for recent statements by the Obama administration at the WTO expressing the fact that China’s market reforms since joining the WTO have fallen short of expectations.

NCTO is a member of the Manufacturers for Trade Enforcement (MTE) coalition.

On July 11 and 12, MTE held briefings on Capitol Hill to explain why China does not meet the standard of a market economy.  The PowerPoint accompanying those events may be found here.

To learn more about why China should not be granted market economy status, visit MTE’s website at www.tradeenforcement.org.

NCTO is a Washington, DC-based trade association that represents domestic textile manufacturers.  Visit our website at www.ncto.org.

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CONTACT:  Lloyd Wood
(202) 822-8028
lwood@ncto.org

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