US tower manufacturers rebuff China over talks

CHINA: China may be poised for tower dumping talks - but the US manufacturers that filed a legal complaint have said they are not interested.

by Ros Davidson 16 March 2012

China's Vice Commerce Minister Jiang Zengwei said recently that with the US through each country's trade associations.

However, speaking for the US-based Wind Tower Trade Coalition, Dan Pickard of the law firm
Wiley Rein said last night: "We are not in negotiations, we have not been approached
about negotiations, nor are we currently considering entering into negotiations."

In January, the US Department of Commerce (DoC) agreed to investigate whether Chinese and Vietnamese producers are dumping towers on the American market at unfairly low prices.

The US coalition also accuses China of overly subsidising its tower sector. The Asian producers deny the charges.

At the DoC, a petitioner can withdraw a complaint, although a withdrawal is not common because of the expense of filing. The DoC may then stop investigating, if it decides the probe is no longer in the US public interest.

The complaint was also filed at the US International Trade Commission.

The coalition members are Broadwind Energy, DMI Industries, Katana Summit and Trinity Structural Towers.