US pushes against overproduction with eye on China at G20 meeting

MILWAUKEE: The United States is pushing for action against excess industrial capacity that drives prices down unfairly, Washington's top trade envoy said Wednesday on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, with some countries – excluding China – agreeing to a plan that includes reducing subsidies. The developments came as officials from the Group of 20 major economies convened in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee over two days, with a group of countries separately agreeing on a framework to counter "persistent" excess steel production.

Overcapacity is a criticism often leveled against China, with accusations that it produces more than it consumes, flooding markets. Beijing rejects these claims. "We're releasing a Milwaukee framework to take coordinated action on steel excess capacity," top US trade official Jamieson Greer told reporters Wednesday.