USTR tells Commerce to comply with WTO ruling

Sep 07, 2012 | 03:00 PM |

Tags  USTR, Commerce, anti-dumping, zeroing, sawblades

Recent economic news coming out of China has many investors wondering what measures Beijing will take to halt the slowdown of the world’s second-biggest economy. Industrial profits have declined for four straight months through July, the National Bureau of Statistics has reported. The statistics bureau also said this week that industrial value-added output for August expanded at its slowest pace in more than three years. Separately, China’s own official purchasing managers’ index showed manufacturing actually contracted in August for the first time in nine months. Prices for many basic materials, including steel, continue to slide, with further declines anticipated in the fourth quarter.

Limited and highly targeted actions may be the answer. Last week, the National Development and Reform Commission announced the approval of dozens of infrastructure projects valued at more than 1 trillion yuan ($157.8 billion), including 25 new urban rail transit and intercity rail line projects, which will require total investment of more than 800 billion yuan over eight years.

“It’s a fight to keep China on an even keel,’’ said Jonathan Anderson, president of Emerging Market Advisors in Beijing, in an interview with Institutional Investor. “Nobody is looking to accelerate China to 9 or 10 percent growth.’’ China has targeted headline GDP growth of 7.5 percent for 2012, down from growth of 9.3 percent last year, a goal that Anderson finds achievable, as the economy stabilizes in the fourth quarter. China’s GDP grew by 7.6 percent in the second quarter, the slowest pace in three years.....