Mogadishu, Somalia (IRIN) – It is Friday morning in Mogadishu and Lido beach presents a scene reminiscent of seaside towns around the world. At the top of the beach, women sit with their wares, selling water and ice-lollies from cool-boxes. The middle-beach is dominated by young men playing football using driftwood as goalposts. At the water’s edge, boys and girls, the latter heedless of their long flowing garments, hurl themselves into the waves or bob on the surface like apples.

“We’re on holiday”, says Ibrahim, a Londoner in his twenties who was born in northern Somalia. Ibrahim is traveling in a group of 20, all from the UK. “We came here for the beaches”, he said. On the road behind him, blue lettering advertises the Indian Ocean Star, a new beach-front restaurant and bar.

Bashir Osman has facilitated journalist visits for years and now plans to capitalize on the swelling ranks of visitors like Ibrahim who are choosing, for both business and personal reasons, to come to bullet-ridden Mogadishu. Osman has purchased 500-meters of beachfront land a few kilometers south of the international airport compound, where he hopes to open a restaurant and eventually a hotel. His infectious fondness for Mogadishu belies a strong philanthropic streak.

People are returning and reconstruction is under way. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 3,800 people returned to Mogadishu in March alone. From afar the city glints with shiny new tin roofs dotted among dust-covered ruins and camps. Private operators are offering electricity in the old town for US$30 a month. Fishermen are enjoying a healthy demand for shark-fins from Dubai and the Middle East, with a shark fetching as much as $500. Building materials lie in piles on street corners, where camel’s milk and cappuccino vendors ply their wares.

International NGO and diplomatic missions are also coming back – according to a UN source, Britain has already identified the plot for its permanent diplomatic base on the airport compound – and property prices have spiked. According to Osman, a 100-square meter plot near K4 in the city center sold recently for $2 million.

“The key is security”, said Abdullahi Godah Barre, minister for planning and international cooperation, of the city’s renovation. While African Union troops have largely taken Mogadishu and continue to push beyond the city limits to secure outlying areas where Al-Shabaab operatives remain obdurately in place, the Somali capital is still in counter-terrorism mode, and kidnap and ransom, improvised explosive devices, and suicide bombers remain an everyday threat.

Turkish investors

But there are investors willing to look past this. “We have a lot of interested parties, for example the Turkish government and Turkish business people”, said Mohamed Ibrahim, deputy prime minister in Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG). In March, a delegation of Turkish investors met Somali officials to discuss opportunities. “These are the first willing investors on the Turkish side,” Ibrahim said.

It is estimated that 25 percent (or even 50 percent according to some sources) of Somalia’s GDP comes from remittances abroad. In what is known as the economy without a state, the World Bank says minimal interference in Somalia’s private sector has allowed it to flourish.

Mogadishu’s 30 road, which was until last summer held by Al-Shabaab, is now one of the city’s busiest highways. Workers at the nearby headquarters of Hormuud Telecom view the bombed-out ruins of the city through mirrored glass windows. The largest telecoms company in Somalia, Hormuud, reported sales of $40 million in 2010 – staggering when the World Bank estimates that 73 percent of Somalia’s population of nine million lives on less that $2 per day. The company also distributes emergency food aid.

Like many in government, civil society and the diaspora, Ibrahim wants Somalia to cease being dependent on the international community. Somalia is believed to have significant oil deposits and interest in these has been sparked by this year’s announcement of drilling in semi-autonomous Puntland, northern Somalia. “The difficulty is this political situation. It is not the right time for international investors to come in,” acknowledged Ibrahim on the exploitation of Somalia’s oil. But he went on to add that Somalia welcomes discussions with any investors.

“The diaspora are coming back. We’ve been appealing to them for a long time”, said Abdullahi Goodah Barre, Somalia’s minister for planning and international cooperation.

Junaid Egale is a 30-year-old former Londoner who this year opened a UK-registered international business consultancy firm, MIJ, in Mogadishu, and whose political ambitions include running for president. “We are here now to service the Somali government projects and the international private sector firms i.e. NGOs, telecom and finance,” he said.

However, Egale is sage about the risks. He cautions that until the transitional government’s term has ended and a new mandate is under way, private investment from overseas is not viable. “On the other hand I do believe both private and foreign government investment is, and should be, an alternative fund towards the rebuilding of Somalia than aid from the donors via UNDP [UN Development Program]“, he said.

Corruption

The transitional government has received criticism this year for corruption and a lack of accountability. According to a February report by the International Crisis Group, there is “no reliable database covering all development funds” in Somalia, while as much as 85 percent of the central government’s revenue is never recorded, according to an audit by the Prime Minister’s Office in Mogadishu.

A 2011 report by the Center for American Progress, Twenty Years of Collapse and Counting, said that, according to a confidential audit of the TFG, “in 2009 and 2010 some 96 percent of direct bilateral assistance to the government had simply disappeared, presumably into the pockets of corrupt officials.”

But TFG officials defend themselves against the allegation. Minister for Constitution Abdi Hosh said: “We don’t qualify for bilateral aid.” The ports generate $2 million per year for the government. “That’s peanuts when you see the wreckage in the city”, he said.

Brad Parks, co-director of the transparency initiative AidData, cautions in a blog that recent gains are both fragile and reversible, and that the TFG must accelerate domestic reform efforts if it is to have any hope of building a legitimate state. “In particular, there is a growing sense that the TFG needs to bring some transparency and discipline to its management of public finances”, he said.

Somalia receives very little bilateral, i.e. direct donor to recipient government, aid. “Sadly the TFG has failed to demonstrate that it can manage funds responsibly,” said James Smith, Horn of Africa Project Manager for the Rift Valley Institute.

Much of the bilateral aid that the TFG does receive is from non-traditional donors in the Arab world, such as Qatar and United Arab Emirates. Of the $350 million pledged for Somalia by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation last year, less than half was channeled multilaterally, something which the broader humanitarian system has found difficult to manage.

“If the TFG inspired confidence in its ability to conduct development programs I imagine it would have received significantly more financial support. If it can just ensure a stable environment, Mogadishu will rebuild itself,” said Smith.

jh/cb

– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Beijing, China (AHN) – China saw growth in its exports slow to 4.9 percent in April, compared with 8.9 percent last year because of the slowing of economies around the world.

The slowdown in global demand has also hit Chinese consumers and businesses. Growth in imports to China also slowed, dropping to just 0.3 percent in April, down from 5.3 percent growth in March.

Chinese government officials were reportedly expecting an 11 percent growth in imports. The decrease in imports was nearly across the board affecting everything from consumer items to raw materials.

China is the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States.

Although both nations have a capitalistic business system, the model that the Communist government of China uses is vastly different from the model the U.S. uses.

In the U.S., the model is democratic, secular and free-market where businesses pay taxes to the federal government. In China, the model is state capitalism where the government owns a portion of most businesses and takes part of the profits to fund government operations.

 

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The latest report on private company hiring shows a disappointing 119,000 jobs created in April, according to payroll processor ADP. ADP’s report comes ahead of the official government numbers for April due out on Friday

Stock prices fell in midday trading on Wednesday as Wall Street reacted to the numbers that were lower than the 170,000 jobs many analysts expected the economy to create last month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 41 points, or 0.3 percent, falling to 13,239, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped two points, or 0.1 percent, slumping to 3,048 and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gave up six points, or 0.4 percent, plunging to 1,399.

ADP’s report comes ahead of the official government numbers for April due out on Friday.

The jobs that were created in April might not be the ones that many people might prefer.

That was because job creation differed between small companies, which traditionally offer fewer if any benefits, and large companies that usually have pay that is more generous and benefit packages.

Large companies with 500 or more employees added only 4,000 new employees, while small companies with fewer than 50 employees hired 58,000 people. In addition, medium-sized businesses created 57,000 jobs.

Job creation was better the previous two months with earlier ADP reports showing that companies added 228,000 jobs in February and 201,000 jobs in March.

The economy needs to create between 120,000 to 220,000 jobs monthly just to keep up with growth in the labor market.

In many months, the economy has not done that, which has meant that many of the millions of people who lost their jobs during the recession have not been able to find work. In addition, about 50 percent of recent college graduates have either been unable to find work or have had to take jobs below their skill level.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks opened higher Tuesday as investors await earnings from Apple, the world’s most valuable company, after the close.

Just after 10 a.m. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 102 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 6 points and the NASDAQ was up 5.

In addition to corporate earnings, investors were also weighing data that revealed that the housing market recovery is still ailing.

Tuesday kicks off one of the busiest weeks for corporate earnings, which have been coming in better than expectations.

The week began on shaky ground with all three major U.S. indexes falling on Monday as market participants grew anxious over European political uncertainty and signs of a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

In world markets, with some political concerns abetting, European stocks were mixed in afternoon trading. Asia finished the day slightly lower.

In currencies and commodities, the dollar fell against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

Oil for June delivery tacked on 89 cents to $104 a barrel, and gold futures added $11 to $1,643.60 a troy ounce.

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Cairo, Egypt David Rosenberg (The Medi – In the Middle East, the middle class is grumpy.

And if the mass protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and Tunisia’s Habib Bourguiba Avenue over the past year haven’t made that clear, a survey of the people who make up the region’s soccer moms and middle managers articulates their angst in ways rallies often fail.

Less than a third of the people surveyed in the three Middle East and North African (MENA) countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco said they are “extremely satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their current economic situation, according to the poll conducted by consulting firm Booz & Co. Respondents who said they were “not at all satisfied” and only “slightly satisfied” reached 48 percent.

The survey comes at a time when the region’s leaders – both those who have come to power on the back of Arab Spring protests and those who are trying to head them off – are grappling with how to steer their countries to greater prosperity and freedom. So far, they are stumbling, with most of the region’s economies reeling from political upheaval and the transition to democracy proceeding slowly, if at all.

“There has never been a more critical time for policymakers in the Middle East to focus on empowering the region’s sizable—and politically significant—middle class,” Richard Shediac, Samer Bohsali and Hatem Samman, the authors of the report said. “There is a dire need for change, via a set of economic, social, and political policies aimed at developing a large, dynamic, and sustainable middle class.”

Compared to the West, MENA’s middle class is both undersized and understudied. Indeed, Booz had to develop its own parameters for defining its parameters, which it settled on as families with incomes between 75 percent and 150 percent of each country’s median. Turning that into dollar terms, that works out to an annual household income of as little as $23 a day in Morocco to $149 at the upper end for wealthy Saudi Arabia.

Middle class views on their economic situation vary widely from country to country, according to the poll.

To Moroccans, economic conditions have not changed markedly over the past five years, while Egyptians are the most dissatisfied with the present situation. Saudis, whose economy is booming on the back of high oil prices, overwhelmingly rate their current economic status favorably.

MENA’s middle class is different than its peers in Europe and North America. Booz said it produces fewer entrepreneurs and therefore is less a source of economic growth. That is because the public sector is the main employer of the middle class rather than the private sector.

In Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for example, small and medium-sized businesses account for between 25 percent and 38 percent of employment, respectively, compared with 55 percent in the U.S., and 60 percent in Germany.

The survey gives some insight into why: 44 percent rated “having a secure job” as their most important factor in choosing an occupation while only 3 percent ranked “participating in new business venture” as so important.

Despite relying on it, employer trust in government is low. Less than a third of the middle class gives it a passing grade for disclosing adequate and accurate information, fighting corruption or having a fair and open court system. This figure is below 10 percent in Morocco. Less than a fifth of the MENA middle class trust their country’s court system

The poll also found that the middle class feels the educational system is performing poorly. More than half said it fails to provide opportunities for them or for their children, in terms of work. Nevertheless, more than 80 percent claim to save money for their children’s education, up to a 10th of their monthly income in some cases.

An average of 57 percent for all three countries said that their salary covers basic expenses, with a little for extras. Between 27 percent and 30 percent are barely able to make ends meet, while 3 percent said they could not even do that.

When they have free time, MENA’s middle class prefer shopping malls, restaurants, and amusement parks to nightclubs, pubs or museums. Saudis preferences are, of course, limited since movie theaters and nightclubs are banned in the country, but in Morocco where they are permitted, only 19 percent go to them. Egyptians are heavy cinema goers, with 60 percent saying they buy tickets. Nearly 100 percent of the middle class claims to watch television every day

“To many Westerners, these forms of entertainment may seem superficial and limiting. Yet surprisingly, middle class respondents report overall contentment with their entertainment options.” the report said.

Nevertheless, half of MENA’s middle class claims to be satisfied with their entertainment and cultural offerings, and in Saudi Arabia that number rises to 70 percent, with the highest rating among women. “One explanation for this disparity is that people cannot miss something they have never experienced,” the report suggests, noting that foreign travel among the region’s middle class is not that common.

In spite of the current pessimism, a surprising number of middle class people remain bullish about the future, Booz found. About 70 percent have a positive outlook for the economy over the next five years, especially in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. If only 5 percent said they are “extremely satisfied” with the economic conditions today, 29 percent said they expected it to be “much better” five years from now.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The U.S. economy created 120,000 new jobs in March, causing the unemployment rate to drop slightly to 8.2 percent, down from 8.3 percent in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Nonfarm employment rose in manufacturing, food services and drinking; however, it was down in retail trade.

Although the report was good news, it was not great news. The economy needs to create from 120,000 to 200,000 jobs monthly to keep up with growth in the labor force. Many economists had expected job growth closer to the top of that range.

March growth was less than that of the previous three months, and not sufficient to fuel a recovery in the jobs sector of the economy.

The official number of unemployed persons remained virtually unchanged at 12.7 million, compared to 12.8 in February. However, the percentage of working-age Americans who had a job also dropped slightly to 63.8 percent in March, compared to 63.9 percent in February. Before the recession, 89 percent or more of working-age Americans had a job.

The gap between the percentage of working-age people who have jobs and the official unemployment rate is because people are only counted as unemployed if they actively look for jobs. Many discouraged workers eventually stop looking for jobs.

Long-term unemployment is defined as individuals who are jobless for 27 weeks or more and who continue actively to look for work. That number was essentially unchanged in March at 5.3 million, with those people accounting for 42.5 percent of the unemployed. That number has fallen by 1.4 million since April 2010.

The number of people who were working part-time because their employers cut their hours or because they were unable to find full-time work also fell. That number dropped from 8.1 to 7.7 million people.

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Berlin, Germany (AHN) – Consumer spending fell in February, with retail sales registering a 1.1 percent drop compared to January, according to the Federal Statistics Office.

Sales figures seem to be a bit volatile. Economists had expected growth. However, heavy snowfall during the first part of the month kept shoppers at home and rising energy costs pinched consumer budgets.

However, with the help of an extra day because of Leap Year, February retail sales on an annual basis were up by 1.7 percent.

Expectations for Europe’s largest economy are brighter for 2012 as a whole with analysts anticipating that growth will increase this year.

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Remtha, Jordan (IRIN) – At the edge of this busy border town, a set of old, overcrowded buildings has become a transit house for Syrians fleeing to Jordan illegally.

Designed for 500, the compound now houses up to 800 at times. Those who do not find space inside sleep in the open under trees. The compound has no gate – external traffic passes through it as children run around without supervision. The toilets are strewn with days-old feces, with women’s sanitary napkins piled up in the corners.

No one is fond of the place – not the UN, not the NGOs which provide services, not the Jordanian police officer who runs it – but there are few alternatives.

Apartments in northern Jordanian border towns are filling up and some landlords have doubled the rent.

Refugee camps are already under construction along the border. But opening them entails a political decision Amman is not yet willing to take, as Jordan tries to play a delicate balancing act between providing humanitarian aid to the Syrians without calling them refugees and taking strong action that would offend the Syrian regime.

Nor are camps an ideal solution for aid workers, who much prefer refugees to live a normal life in apartments.

But as Andrew Harper, head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Jordan, put it: “If there is a lack of international support, there may be no option.”

Until now, the UN has played a limited role in the response to the Syrian refugee crisis. But as a year-long anti-government uprising in Syria becomes increasingly violent and refugees keep streaming out, the scale of the problem is becoming too big for host countries Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to handle alone. And with the situation expected to get worse, the UN is now trying to prepare for a future influx.

“On a daily basis, there are hundreds of people who continue crossing the border,” said Panos Moumtiz, newly-appointed regional refugee coordinator for UNHCR. Given there is yet “no light at the end of the tunnel” with regards to a political solution, he told IRIN, “we know that on a pragmatic level, we need to be ready.”

UNHCR today appealed for US$84 million to cover immediate humanitarian needs for Syrian refugees in the next six months and to ensure systems are in place to be prepared for more arrivals. That price tag is likely to rise as needs are re-assessed in the coming weeks and months.

There are currently more than 30,000 Syrians registered with UNHCR across the region, but around 96,500 in need of humanitarian assistance, the agency says. That number is expected to double, according to the UN’s contingency plans.

“The burden”

Jordan is fast becoming the most desirable option for Syrian refugees. Some come here after fleeing first to Lebanon or Turkey, or from as far as northern Syrian cities Aleppo and Idlib. Syrians say they feel safer here than in Lebanon, where some elements of its government support the Syrian regime; and more comfortable than in Turkey, where they may encounter linguistic problems.

So far, Jordan has done a reasonable job of responding to the crisis. But the refugees are increasingly testing the small, resource-poor country’s weak infrastructure, already stretched to the limit by the presence of nearly half a million Iraqi refugees.

Jordan’s economy is based mainly on remittances and foreign aid. The national debt is $20 million and unemployment stands at 13 percent. The government subsidizes bread, water and fuel; and is also shouldering the cost of Syrians going to school and accessing medical care for free.

It is a country accustomed to hosting refugees – they have flowed here during several crises over the decades – and people do not question their presence.

“Of course they are welcome here. Where else would they go?” one taxi driver said.

But from the taxi drivers to the highest levels of government, there is a level of resentment at having to carry the “burden”, as government spokesman Rakan al-Majali put it, alone.

“We did not want to demand international help before responding to this crisis,” he told IRIN. “But we are confident that our Arab brothers and the international community will not let Jordan down.”

Needs beginning to increase

Many Jordanian families – economically vulnerable to begin with – have been hosting Syrian refugees in their homes.

“They’re basically sharing their shirts, their gas bottles, their bedrooms – anything they can share,” Harper told IRIN. “There’s an incredible demonstration of good will at the moment, but there’s only so much resources people can share before it becomes exhausted.”

According to community-based organizations, that has already begun happening. Jordanians who had rented out apartments to Syrians for free can no longer afford to do so and have, in some cases, had to kick their guests out.

Up six flights of dark, dusty stairs, Um Maher and eight other members of her family live in a soulless apartment with moldy, damp walls, donated beds, no toilets, and running water only once as week. They fled from the Syrian flashpoint city of Homs. Her husband now works for 250 Jordanian dinars a month, all but 40 of which goes towards medicine and rent.

It is people like these UNHCR wishes to support financially, but has so far been unable to do so on a wide scale. While the family is registered with UNHCR, the only help it has received is from the Syrian Woman Association, a community group formed by an older wave of Syrian refugees who fled to Jordan in the 1980s.

Short of cash

The more protracted their stay in Jordan, the more vulnerable these new refugees are becoming. Some were able to support themselves when they first arrived, but have since exhausted their savings. The Islamic Charity Center Society, for one, is registering people who have been in Jordan for months but only now are starting to need assistance.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says refugee children as young as eight or nine are working in coffee shops and garages because their families are so desperate for cash inflow. The agency is also concerned about families marrying off their daughters young as a way of coping.

New arrivals from Syria are arriving with less means.

Nithal Hassan spent four months hiding in a cave outside the southern Syrian town of Dera’a after security services came looking for him. By the time he arrived in the Jordanian border town of Mafraq, he had the equivalent of $15 in his pocket.

As the crisis in Syria continues, many have gone extended periods without work and have had to spend their savings to survive. They cannot sell their homes or cars because the market has stopped. Those who do come with the hugely de-valued Syrian pound cannot exchange it for much on the market.

“So even the rich are needy when they arrive,” said Masara Srass, who leads the Syrian refugee response for the Syrian Woman Association.

The long-standing Syrian community in Jordan absorbed many of the new arrivals into their homes and helped them with cash, food, blankets and furniture. But as the number grows, this, too, has become unsustainable. And the organizations themselves need support.

“We want international organizations to help us build our capacity, give us money. They need to help. Otherwise, how can we keep working?” said Eqbal Ebrahim of the association.

One of the weaknesses of these local groups has been coordination. There is an excess of food and a lack of cash to support families who are renting. Various different organizations have been registering families, and according to aid workers, many of the latter have received aid many times over.

Local aid agencies are already trying to amalgamate all their lists, but UNHCR hopes its new response plan will contribute to improved coordination and a clearer strategy for the government’s response – which has come under some criticism for lacking direction and having no clear lead ministry.

“If the government had a plan, would the situation here have gotten so bad?” asked one aid worker at the Remtha guesthouse.

International burden-sharing

The government spokesperson, al-Majali, said the number of Syrians in the country has so far been manageable.

“The movement between the two countries has always existed in the thousands,” he said. “Now they’re staying longer – these are just details.”

The government is ready to open the camps as soon as the numbers necessitate it, he added. “We are prepared to help our brothers no matter what the size of the problem.”

But Harper insists the international community needs to be part of the solution.

“If [we] are serious about international burden-sharing and trying to help those in need, then Jordan is doing the first step, the second, third and fourth steps, but at some point, it can’t do it alone.”

The UNHCR response plan includes cash assistance for vulnerable Syrian families and support for host communities, including the refurbishing of schools and health facilities.

As part of the plan, UNICEF hopes to repay the Jordanian government for the tuition and textbooks costs of Syrian children going to school, who number at least 10,000 according to al-Majali.

Through its partners, it is also hoping to provide psycho-social support for traumatized children who wet their beds, jump at every sound and whose vocabulary has come to include blood-covered streets and rocket-propelled grenades.

The International Organization of Migration (IOM) is requesting funds to be able to monitor the border and evacuate Palestinians or Iraqis in Syria who may eventually need to flee.

The Jordanian government will also be conducting an assessment of the refugee population in the coming weeks, to better define the needs.

Some agencies, like UNICEF, present in Jordan for decades, have been able to use some of their own funds to start projects immediately. But others, like UNHCR, have been hamstrung. “In Jordan, we’ve got basically nothing to work with at the moment,” Harper said.

As funds become available and the UN starts providing more assistance, people who have not registered with UNHCR are likely to come out of the woodwork, which will put an additional pressure on aid, he warned.

The UN is preparing a separate three-month plan for a response to humanitarian needs within Syria, where there are an estimated 200,000 displaced people in need of immediate humanitarian assistance. It will be launched in a few weeks, following the results of a government-led assessment of affected areas, in which technical staff from the UN and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are also taking part.

Other agencies, like the Jordan Red Crescent, will be launching their own appeals.

“The capitals around the world who are deploring what is going on [in Syria] should also step up [with support],” Harper said. “We will see whether the rhetoric is hollow on the humanitarian front.”

ha/cb

– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Gold gained ground Thursday after a steep sell-off Wednesday in which the yellow metal tumbled some $50 as the “risk-on” trade entered the picture, and market participants moved into equities.

Gold lost some of its luster over the previous trading sessions as a strong U.S. dollar pressured the commodity, and on growing investor optimism for the U.S. economy.

In early afternoon trading Thursday, gold rose $16 to $1659.80 a troy ounce, taking back some of the near 4 percent lost earlier in the week.

Other metals rose in concert. Platinum rose $4.10 to $1,685, and palladium was up $5.30 to $705. Silver added $0.30 cents to close at $32.71.

A weaker dollar and bargain hunting were behind the advances.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The United States Senate has passed legislation to apply penalty duties to products from China when its communist government subsidizes production of those items.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) said the bill protects U.S. companies and workers from China’s unfair trade practices.

The application of countervailing duties allows the U.S. to stop China from undercutting American manufacturers and dumping products at less than cost here.

Supporters say the legislation protects thousands of American jobs by leveling the playing field for U.S. companies and workers.

The imposition of penalty duties helps to offset the subsidies that China’s government often provides for products manufactured in that country that allow Chinese companies to sell products below their true cost to the U.S.

Senators approved the legislation for the nonmarket economy nations of China and Vietnam.

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