How China Will Respond To Trade Protectionism From The Perspective Of "Special Safeguard"

Since China entered WTO, its volume of foreign trade has been growing rapidly, but also facing more and more trade friction. On April20th2009, the Steel Workers Union of the USA believed that the imports of certain passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China increased rapidly and caused market disruption to the relative American domestic industries. So they filed a petition to the US International Trade Commission (USITC), requesting a special safeguard investigation about the related tires imported from China. After the investigation, USITC believed the tire imports caused market disruption and thus proposed a three-year additional tariff on the imports from China. Eventually, the US president Obama decided to impose a three-year high tariff on the Chinese tire exports to America(35%,30%,25%).That’s the first special safeguard case in the Obama administration and by now the largest amount of money involved in the safeguard case. Since the implementation of the special safeguard measures, it has caused adverse effects both to China and US.As a form of trade protectionism, although the special safeguard has already expired, the experience and lessons it brought is still worth learning. China, as one of the countries suffering from trade remedy measures most, must take seriously about any forms of trade protectionism measures, gain experience and prepare in advance. Therefore, this article will take the Sino-US tire special safeguard case as an example, analyze the influences of special safeguard and give suggestions on how to deal with trade protectionism in China.This article includes five parts. The first part is about the research background, purpose, significance and the writing framework. The second part introduces the special safeguard, including its concept, historical origin, and its impact on related Chinese rights and export. The third part analyzes the processes, causes, outcomes and effects of the Sino-US tire special safeguard case. The part of the causes of the case emphatically analyzes the political and economic reasons; the part of the influences of the case analyzes the impact both on China and US, whose main purpose is to reveal the perniciousness of the special safeguard. The fourth part analyzes why China failed in the tire case, mainly from the aspects of special safeguard itself, US and China. The last part puts forward suggestions on how to deal with trade protectionism in China on the basis of the above analysis.The expiration of the special safeguard does not mean that we can lose vigilance. The diversity of the trade protectionism means that we should take seriously and be cautious about the new trade situation China are faced with.What we learn from the Sino-US tire special safeguard case is that, firstly, we should minimize the trade remedy opportunities that other countries try to implement on China as possible as we can; secondly, we should deal with the trade protectionism actively when it happens and minimize the adverse impacts to the least.