China Assails U.S. For Launching Dumping Inquiry; Agency to Check Bedroom-Set Imports
China on Friday sharply criticized the Bush administration's decision to consider imposing protective tariffs on imports of Chinese bedroom furniture, assailing the investigation as a new front in an escalating trade dispute between the two countries.</br></br>"We strongly protest the U.S.'s decision to proceed with the probe," said Chong Quan, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce, in a written statement, asserting that the U.S. action breaks the rules of the World Trade Organization.</br></br>China's admonition came in reaction to the U.S. Commerce Department's decision to open an investigation into the sales of about $1 billion worth of Chinese bedroom sets in the United States, following complaints from American producers that these goods are being sold at below fair market prices -- a practice known as dumping. In petitions, U.S. furniture manufacturers have asserted that they have been unfairly harmed by a surge of such goods.</br></br>The furniture spat comes amid continuing signs that trade may intensify as a political issue in the months before next year's presidential election in the United States. On Friday, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit climbed in October to a record high of $41.8 billion while running at an annual rate of more than $490 billion -- far larger than last year's record trade deficit of $418 billion.</br></br>At the center of the tension sits China, whose trade surplus with the United States is expected to swell beyond $120 billion for the year. The Bush administration has put much of the blame for the loss of some 2.8 million American manufacturing jobs on China.