Cited: AP Business

The United States and Europe have complained of unfair trade practices by China and now China is on the defensive by curbing its exports of industrial raw materials. To top it off, China has filed a challenge on the US banned of Chinese poultry. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has stated they are in compliance with Chinese trade commitments and that they are only meant to protect the environment.

The United States and European Union filed World Trade Organization complaints Tuesday accusing Beijing of unfairly favoring its domestic steel, chemicals and other industries by restricting foreign rivals’ access to key materials. China is a major supplier of several materials.

“The goal of the Chinese side’s policy on the relevant exports is to protect the environment and natural resources, and the Chinese side considers the relevant policy to be compliant with WTO regulations,” the ministry said in a written statement. It said Beijing hopes to resolve the dispute through dialogue in the Geneva-based WTO.

The complaints add to tensions over Beijing’s industrial policies that have been aggravated by the plunge in world trade. China has raised taxes on exports of coke, steel, fertilizers and other goods to curb the growth of industries deemed too dirty or energy-intensive and to ensure supplies at reasonable prices for domestic buyers.

The materials cited in the U.S. and European complaints include coke, bauxite, magnesium and silicon metal. China is the biggest exporter of coke, a fuel made from coal and used in steelmaking and other industries.

The communist government also has rankled some of its trading partners by trying to boost exports through tax breaks and other aid to Chinese producers, which threatens to pump more goods into already glutted global markets.

Analysts expect U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration to file more trade cases against China following his campaign promises to take a tougher approach with U.S. trading partners. Pressure to protect American jobs has mounted as the country struggles with its longest recession since World War II.

For those who would rather think of something other than poultry . . . A unique style of jewelry, like leather chokers, was fashioned by two young artistic designers with a creative fire in their belly, wanting to wear tribal designs to match their urban outdoor lifestyle. The need for cool fashion jewelry for guys and girls, who were inspired by the sun-blessed lifestyle of Australia, grew rapidly with the creation of unique sculptured three dimensional tribal symbol pendants designs. Who knows, China may be interested in jewelry trade agreement.

Both Beijing and Washington have imposed measures favoring domestic industries in their economic stimulus packages enacted in response to the global slowdown. China criticized Washington’s “Buy American” measure favoring U.S.-made iron, steel and manufactured goods in stimulus projects. Beijing announced its own “Buy China” requirement this month for projects to use domestically made goods wherever possible.

Beijing announced this week it will cut some export taxes July 1 but the goods affected did not include materials cited by the United States and Europe and it was unclear whether the step would mollify them. Taxes on fertilizers will fall from as high as 110 percent to 10 percent, on ammonia from 50 percent to 10 percent and on some types of steel girders from 10 percent to 5 percent. The announcement did not mention coke, bauxite or magnesium.

The WTO hearing process can take up to a year. If the U.S. and EU prevail and China refuses to lift its restrictions, the two would receive approval to impose sanctions equal to the harm suffered by their companies. Separately, the Ministry of Commerce said that Beijing has asked the WTO to investigate a U.S. ban on imports of Chinese poultry.

The two countries banned imports of each others’ poultry in 2004 following an outbreak of bird flu. Beijing lifted its ban after a few months and complains Washington has failed to follow through on a pledge to open its market to Chinese poultry exports.

“China’s poultry products cannot be properly exported to the United States, and this has hurt the legitimate rights of the Chinese poultry industry,” ministry spokesman Yao Jian said in the statement.

It said Beijing has asked the WTO dispute resolution mechanism to create a group to investigate the U.S. ban.

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My Take: Everything that I have read so far about China’s complaint: and of Chinese poultry doesn’t say anything about why. I wonder why? The US has stringent rules of inspection for any food product that is regulated by the FDA. Apparently, China’s equivalent of the FDA is not so, how should I put it, attentive in its work.

As I understand it, the ban on Chinese poultry was because the FDA did not want diseased or infected poultry products entering the US that could potentially cause people to get sick. That is the job of the FDA! They made sure that meat and poultry products on the market are safe for consumption. The source I read on the Internet stated that the areas that the poultry was prepared were not clean and that meant that disease could easily infect meats.

Another reason for the ban was that the bird-flu turned up in Hong Kong poultry and they were selling it to the public. In December 2008, CBS reported about three dead birds that were found to have bird flu. Supposedly, about 80,000 birds were killed and destroyed because of this. According to this article, it seems that there have been outbreaks in 1997, 2001 and 2008. In an 11-year period, they have killed almost 2.5 million birds. No wonder the US put a ban on Chinese folk.

Even if they were giving away custom shopping bags with their poultry, I would not buy Chinese poultry. Not even fancy personalized packaging could make me pay for infected meats. I will stand on the side of the US and FDA as long as China has infected poultry.

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Well, according to the data that was released on Friday, only about half of the loan modifications that made to the end of the year actually reduced payments by more than 10%. This data comes from the Office of the Compiler of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. They apparently analyzed nearly 35 million loans worth more than $6 trillion.

President Obama’s $75 billion plan to promote loan modifications is mainly for the average homeowner and does not provide for commercial loan workouts. Although, there are just as many commercial loan defaults, in comparison, as there are home loan defaults.

This report also states that many of the loans that were modified are also falling back into default. Many people believe that this is because of the lending industries unwillingness to be generous despite regulators attempts to influence them. As it is, 1 in 4 modifications actually increased monthly payments in the fourth quarter of 2008. It is believed the reason for this is that lenders are adding fees or past-due interest to the loan and spreading them out over the 30-40 year period.

This means that after nine months 26% of the loans that were modified and were dropped by 10% or more in the size of their payment, fell back into default. It is possible that less would likely fall into default if the monthly payments were reduced even more. Maybe they should get a special servicer to help them work this out.

However, there was some positive news to come out of these loan modifications in 2008. By the end of the year that 25% had increased to 37% of loans with payments lowered more than 10% that resulted in less going back into default.

Lenders such as Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. have realized that home and commercial loan defaults will decrease as they realize that more permanent changes are needed to get borrowers back on track.

The truth is, only time will tell if lenders will be willing to sacrifice certain things in making loan modifications that will help the borrower retain his or her home.

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