Research On U.S.301 Investigation Of China's Green Technology Polices

Octobor17,2010, USTR office accepted the petition under section 301 as amending China's policies in green technology raised by USW, the U.S. thinks that there exists a large number of subsidies in China's new energy industry and these policies of subsidies have violated some of WTO rules, which leads to a decline in U.S. market share and job loss. The survey of 301 is different from the previous anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, its filing threshold is low, opportunities to defend are fewer, the scope is broad and its affects are much larger than other trade protection measures. Since 1997 the US has not used 301 investigation to China, it reuses it after 13 years, especially aiming to the new energy industry which is valued by most countries in the world, all these show that the US has deep intention to China. Therefore, in response to the accusations, it is very necessary to analyze China's relative policies, reveal the intentions of the US and put forward countermeasures.Facing to the charges, the fist thing China has to do is examining their own policies seriously. The new energy industry includes many segmental industries, this article will analyze the comprehensive promoting policies first, and then select some representative industries which are also mention in the petition to demonstrate. These industries include wind, solar, biomass, efficient lighting, new energy automobiles and so on. Among these industries, wind and solar power are two industries start earlier and they are also valued by China's government, the promoting measures range from tax support to prices support.On the basis of knowing China's new energy policies, we should also be familiar with WTO's rules on subsidies, so this paper have demonstrated relative contents of "Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures"(SCM Agreement) in order to analyze China's subsidy policy. Due to the complication of China's subsidy policy of new energy industry, I just select several representative industries to demonstrate, which are also contained in the petition. The main problems are as follows:China's restrictions on rare earth and other raw materials violate the promises when joining in WTO; Listing Eleventh Five-Year Plan and other programmatic documents and export tax rebate policy into the subsidy policy is inappropriate; Whether export credit and export credit guarantees belong to subsidy need to be further identified.Why did U.S. launch 301 investigation instead of countervailing duty investigation? It is not a simple stuff, U.S. has its profound purpose:Exert pressure on Chinese Government about the exchange rate problem; Put pressure on the prices of rare earth and so on. Although the ultimate basis for U.S. trade policy can attribute to economic factors, but in the short term, their political aims are dominant and their main political motivations are weakening China's competitiveness on the new energy industry and campaigning for votes for the mid-term elections. In the end, the conclusion is that U.S.301 investigation is trade protectionism.Facing U.S. trade protection measures and their attempts to curb China's economic development, the Chinese government, industry associations and enterprises should take effective measures to protect their rights and interest.