U.S., China file dueling complaints as trade tensions heat up

Washington alleges that Beijing is illegally subsidizing exports of autos and auto parts. The Chinese challenge anti-dumping duties that the Americans levied.

The moves came as President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney sparred over who would be tougher on China, whose swift economic rise has fueled anxiety in the U.S. Critics have alleged that China engages in unfair trade tactics that have led to chronic U.S. trade deficits and the loss of millions of American jobs.

Beijing filed its own WTO complaint earlier Monday, challenging anti-dumping duties that Washington had levied on $7.2 billion in goods from China — including steel, tires and kitchen appliances — that the U.S. said were sold here below cost.

The Obama administration launched a new enforcement action Monday with the World Trade Organization, alleging that China was illegally subsidizing exports of automobiles and auto parts.

WASHINGTON — The United States and China have filed international trade complaints against each other, escalating trade tensions amid a weakening global economy and a heated U.S. presidential race.

Both candidates are trying to lure blue-collar voters in key battleground states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where manufacturing jobs in recent years have gone to Chinese factories propped up by government subsidies, export incentives and an artificially low currency.

"Trade has to work for America. That means crack down on cheaters like China," Romney said in a new TV ad that began airing Monday.

Obama in turn accused Romney of making money by investing in companies that moved their operations to China when the Republican was head of private equity firm Bain Capital.

"He's been running around Ohio claiming he's going to roll up his sleeves and he's going to take the fight to China," Obama said during a campaign stop in Cincinnati on Monday. "Now, you can't stand up to China when all you've done is sent them our jobs. You can talk a good game, but I like to walk the walk, not just talk the talk."

To cheers from the crowd, Obama said his administration had filed more trade complaints against China in less than one term than the George W. Bush administration had in two. The latest U.S. complaint was the ninth trade action filed against China by the Obama administration.

The tit-for-tat trade complaints were leveled as Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta arrived in Beijing counseling calm in a dispute between China and Japan over several uninhabited islands. That standoff spawned anti-Japan rallies in dozens of Chinese cities.

But it's difficult to try to tamp down that dispute, which is connected to the sensitive issue of Taiwan, when the U.S. is filing trade complaints and its presidential candidates are criticizing China, said Phillip Lipscy, a specialist on the politics and economies of East Asia.

"Certainly when conditions are bad, people try to look for someone to blame," said Lipscy, an assistant political science professor at Stanford University. "But I really don't think China in any way lies at the heart of the current problems in the United States."

The China-bashing between the two campaigns drew a rebuke from the fiscally conservative Club for Growth, saying it could ignite a trade war that would damage the U.S. economy.

"Instead of pandering on trade with China, both presidential candidates ought to tout the benefits that come with free trade," said Chris Chocola, the group's president.