U.S. President Barack Obama will ask Congress for $26 millionand at least 50 people for a new panel to investigate unfair tradepractices by nations including China, whose Vice President XiJinping is scheduled to arrive today for a U.S. visit.

The 2013 budget proposal Obama will submit to Congress todaycontains funds for an Interagency Trade Enforcement Center thatwould monitor and enforce trade agreements and laws, according toan administration official. Obama announced his intention to createthe panel, which would include lawyers, researchers, analysts andagents supported by the Commerce Department and U.S. TradeRepresentative, in his Jan. 24 State of the Union speech.

Obama is also seeking in his budget an additional $13 millionfor Customs and Border Protection efforts to target pirated goods,$10 million to post 16 Food and Drug Administration employees inChina and three U.S.-based analysts to protect against unsafeimports, said the official, who asked not to be named before thebudget plan was announced.

“There's a widespread perception in Washington that the Chineseare not always playing by the rules,” Matthew Goodman, an Asiaanalyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies inWashington, said in an interview.

The efforts may aid Obama's attempt to boost economic growth andcut unemployment by doubling exports to $3.14 trillion by 2015,from $1.57 trillion in 2009.

Though the panel will be empowered to investigate all foreigntrade, Obama cited China as a source of particular concern in hisState of the Union Address. That could become a source of tensionas Xi begins a five-day visit to the U.S.

Xi is in line to replace President Hu Jintao as generalsecretary this year.

“Both sides have an interest in seeing this visit focus more onrelationship-building between the leadership of the two countriesrather than trying to resolve the longstanding issues,” saidGoodman, who served as Obama's coordinator for Asia-PacificEconomic Cooperation until two months ago.

The U.S. Senate has voted to punish China for maintaining anundervalued currency as Republican presidential candidates havepledged to label China a currency manipulator.

WTO Complaints

Obama filed five World Trade Organization complaints againstChina since taking office three years ago, compared with the seventhat George W. Bush filed from 2001, when China joined the WTO, andthe end of his term in 2009. The U.S. and China have clashed overaccess to each others' markets for products including steel pipes,poultry, tires, movies and music.

China's violations of WTO rules have contributed to more than400,000 lost jobs since 2000, according to a report released lastmonth by the Alliance for American Manufacturers, a group thatincludes Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp.

“Too many American workers have had their jobs stolen from themby foreign unfair, predatory and illegal trade practices,” LeoGerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America, saidyesterday in a statement. Obama's proposal “makes an importantinvestment in trade law,” he said.

U.S. industries say the government isn't doing enough to letcompanies compete with China. SolarWorld AG's U.S. unit says thesolar-energy industry is being harmed by China's cash grants,discounts on raw materials, preferential loans and tax incentives.The U.S. is investigating the complaint.

Obama has also called on Congress to create a program to providecredit to companies competing against foreign counterparts thatbenefit from preferential credit from their governments.

The trade enforcement center will probably take two years toreach its full strength, according to the administrationofficial.

China's economic growth is driving an increase in imports fromthe U.S. China's economy expanded 8.9 percent in the last threemonths of 2011 from the year ago period. The U.S. economy grew 1.6percent during the same period.

U.S. goods exports to China rose 13 percent to $104 billion lastyear from $91.9 billion a year earlier. That topped the 9.4 percentrise in imports from China, according to the U.S. CommerceDepartment. That still left a trade deficit of $295 billion, $23billion wider than a year earlier.

U.S. exports have been spurred by a stronger yuan. The currencyreached an 18-year high on Feb. 10 and advanced 0.1 percent lastweek to 6.2986 per dollar in Shanghai, according to the ChinaForeign Exchange Trade System.

Bloomberg News

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