Aluminium sector trade group Aluminum Association joined with their counterparts in Canada, Japan, and Europe to call upon the Group of Seven (G7) nations to join to level the global playing field for trade in aluminium and associated products.
The aluminium trade associations’ announcement coincided with the release of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) report “Measuring distortions in international markets: Below-market finance.” Per the report, the People’s Republic of China has subsidized between 4 and 7 percent of the annual revenue of its domestic aluminium producers over the past ten years. In comparison, aluminium firms in other countries have on average enjoyed 0.7 percent of their annual revenue covered by state subsidies.
Tom Dobbins, President and CEO of The Aluminum Association, Gerd Götz, Director General of European Aluminium, Jean Simard, President and CEO of the Aluminium Association of Canada, and Yoshihisa Tabata, Executive Director of the Japan Aluminium Association explained that the massive state subsidies provided to Chinese aluminium producers makes life extremely difficult for ex-China aluminium smelters to compete.
“The scale and duration of state support is resulting in output growth in excess of normal market demand, in turn depressing global prices and threatening the viability of un-subsidized firms. Energy efficient production and recycling systems in the US, Europe, Canada and Japan can make a major contribution to sustaining good jobs in rural areas, ensuring reliable supplies of strategically important materials, and realizing a low carbon economy – but only if international markets along the aluminium value chain are free, fair and open.”
“On behalf of our member companies, and the more than 2 million direct and indirect jobs that they support, we are committed to work with governments and international organizations to contribute to modernizing trade rules that will enable all producers and traders to compete under conditions that are transparent, predictable, and fair,” concluded the executives.