China targets another U.S. industry for extinction

Curtis Ellis on how Beijing harmed rural America's aluminum smelters

Curtis Ellis

For another American industry, it’s a wrap.   American aluminum producers are the latest casualties in our trade war with China – a war the United States is losing.  The tactics China is using to foil the aluminum industry are familiar.   Beijing’s communist government provides its domestic aluminum producers with subsidies, including low-cost electricity and tax breaks.   For example, raw aluminum ingots are called “manufactured goods” so they can benefit from a 15 percent export tax rebate and undersell American producers.............With China grabbing more market share, only one U.S. foil producer is left standing.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Whether it’s automotive parts, electronics, textiles, appliances, paper, agricultural products or processed foods, China targets a sector for global domination and then subsidizes its domestic champions to drive foreign competitors into bankruptcy.   Underneath the aluminum foil, the turkeys you see are U.S. policymakers who fail to recognize that what China is practicing is neither free trade nor free market capitalism.

The Washington establishment is paid not to see that......... Read more