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US report cites broad range of trade barriers

AFP, Washington
The United States voiced concern Thursday over a range of global trade obstacles, from restrictions on beef to subsidies for Airbus to China's effort to impose a new wireless chip standard.
The 500-plus page Report on Foreign Trade Barriers covered a laundry list of issues with 58 major US trading partners. It is a prelude to another report to be issued within a month singling out specific countries and issues that could prompt US retaliation.
"The United States benefits from being a relatively open economy, but American workers, exporters, farmers and businesses continue to face barriers for our world-class goods and services," said Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
"Day-in and day-out, all around the world, the US government is working aggressively to make sure barriers to US goods and services are removed."
A major focus of the report was China, which tried to shelter weak
industries from foreign competitors, and its bureaucrats apparently could not resist interfering in the market economy, the USTR said.
"Despite its remarkable transformation over the past quarter century, China continues to suffer from its command economy legacy," the report said. This, it said, was impeding the penetration of US firms into China.
China was criticized for failing to protect intellectual property and trading in counterfeit goods. Beijing also uses opaque methods to decide on quotas for imports of US wheat, corn, rice, cotton, wool, sugar, vegetable oils and fertilizer.
The US singled out China's attempt to impose its own technical security standard for wireless computer chips as "a matter of grave concern" that could result in a complaint to the World Trade Organization.
The report weighed in on the new dispute, which is expected to shut US-based Intel Corp. out of the Chinese market for the fast-growing wireless data network technology,
known as Wi-Fi.
For the European Union, the report cited a long history of government support for the Airbus civil aviation consortium and said it would be troublesome if more aid were extended.
"The United States, therefore, is concerned about the prospect for further subsidization of Airbus by EU member states," the report said.
"Any distortions caused by WTO inconsistent subsidies would only exacerbate an already difficult situation for the US large civil aircraft industry."
Japan also figured prominently in the report, citing protection of dominant telecommunications carriers, failure to crack down on bid-rigging cartels, lack of competition from foreign rice and unscientific requirements on foreign foods.
American apples were kept out by the Japanese insistence, in defiance of scientific data, that mature apples with no symptoms can still transmit the fireblight bacteria, the USTR said.