Again, while Mitt Romney continues to claim that President Obama has been soft on China, that simply isn't reflected by the record as it stands.
The WTO handed the Obama Administration another victory yesterday, denying China the right to impose additional duties on U.S. steel.
(Reuters) - The World Trade Organization barred China on Thursday from imposing duties on certain U.S. steel exports, siding with U.S. President Barack Obama in a dispute with Beijing over a type of steel made in two election battleground states.
The case involved duties imposed by China on "grain-oriented electrical steel," which is used in the cores of high-efficiency transformers, electric motors and generators. The steel is made by AK Steel Corp of Ohio and ATI Allegheny Ludlum of Pennsylvania. [...]
Obama has won WTO victories against Beijing in areas ranging from intellectual property rights to financial services to raw materials trade and has launched several other challenges, such as a case against Chinese export restrictions on rare earth materials.
At this point Romney's various links to outsourcing to China are well documented and well known.
He invested in Uniview, a company that produces surveillance equipment for the Chinese government. He also invested in firms that specialized in high-tech outsourcing. He also profited from an automotive parts marker that fired its entire unionized workforce and moved overseas after it received part of the bailout of the American automotive industry. And he "presided over" Bain's earliest entries into both Chinese and Russian high-finance.
Romney would like for you to believe that he had no knowledge of these investments because they're part of his "blind trust," which is managed by one of his attorneys, but if you actually believe that, it may be time for you to visit the optometrist yourself.
Earlier this month, the Obama administration imposed significant final duties on Chinese-made solar energy products to counteract their below-market prices.
Romney has absolutely no ground to stand on while claiming the president has been weak on trade relations.