US pushes against overproduction with eye on China at G20 meeting

MILWAUKEE: The United States is pushing for action against excess industrial capacity that drives prices down unfairly, Washington’s top trade envoy said Wednesday on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, with some countries — excluding China — agreeing to a plan that includes reducing subsidies.

The developments came as officials from the Group of 20 major economies convened in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee over two days, with a group of countries separately agreeing on a framework to counter “persistent” excess steel production.

Overcapacity is a criticism often leveled against China, with accusations that it produces more than it consumes, flooding markets. Beijing rejects these claims.

“We’re releasing a Milwaukee framework to take coordinated action on steel excess capacity,” top US trade official Jamieson Greer told reporters Wednesday.

“Every country will do what they think is appropriate. We want to coordinate those measures,” Greer added. “The United States has taken robust measures, and it probably makes sense for other countries to do that too.”

He did not elaborate on whether he meant for countries to raise trade barriers on Chinese steel.

The framework was released after a meeting of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity. Its 28 members include the European Union, Australia, Japan and South Korea — but not China.

Asked about his message to partners this week on overcapacity, China’s international trade representative Li Chenggang told AFP early Wednesday that G20 members had yet to discuss the topic.

Besides plans to reduce or eliminate “market-distorting subsidies,” members of the steel global forum also agreed to boost data sharing to help identify “suspicious patterns of steel trade,” according to the framework.

It added that, if needed, members would also take “trade measures” against countries that overproduce. Such measures could include tariffs.