Obama challenges Chinese car import tax The US will challenge Chinese duties imposed on imported American vehicles, in a counter-strike timed to coincide with Barack's Obama's tour of manufacturing states that will be pivotal in this year's presidential election. The "enforcement action" allows the US to demand formal consultations with China at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva. Mitt Romney, Mr Obama's Republican challenger, has accused the president of not standing up to China on trade. Mr Obama told crowds in Toledo, Ohio, "As long as we are competing on a fair playing field, we are doing just fine - and I am going to make sure the competition is fair." China's rise is looming as an important election factor in industrial states, where the Asian giant is often depicted as an unfair trader that is hollowing out local manufacturing. In a television ad tailored for Ohio last month, Mr Romney promised to declare Beijing "a currency manipulator" on his first day in office. A spokeswoman for Mr Romney said: "Candidate Obama may talk a tough game on standing up to China and fighting for American manufacturing, but President Obama just hasn't delivered. China continues to play by its own rules. Both Ohio and neighbouring Michigan depend on the car industry, large parts of which were bailed out by the administration in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis. Mr Romney opposed a government bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, saying they should have gone through bankruptcy procedures for private companies. The Obama administration argues that no private money was available at the time. The Chinese duties affect large US-produced cars and SUVs with engine capacity of 2.5 litres or larger. Car made by Mercedes-Benz and BMW's US operations were also hit. The US maintains China imposed the duties without sufficient evidence of wrongdoing and did not substantiate claims of injury to China's local industry. The US imports account for only a tiny part of the Chinese vehicle market, now the world's biggest. China's decision to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties, ranging from 2 to 12.9 per cent, hit 92,000 vehicles worth $3.3bn in exports, according to the White House. Exports of high-end SUVs to China are however exceptionally profitable. "Imported luxury SUVs are all the rage with wealthy Chinese accounting, in one example, for a third of Mercedes-Benz sales in China," said Michael Dunne, a Hong Kong-based consultant. US officials have repeatedly attacked China for their "abuse" of trade remedy measures and hoped the win on high-end steel - also mainly produced in Ohio and Pennsylvania - would serve as a "precedent" for future rulings. The first stop of Mr Obama's bus tour was Toledo, where the Jeep Wrangler, which was hit by the duties, is manufactured. "The Obama administration will continue to fight to ensure that China does not misuse its trade laws and violate its international trade commitments to block exports of American-made products," said Ron Kirk, the US Trade Representative. American auto workers and manufacturers deserve a level playing field - this is the third time that the Obama administration has challenged China's misuse of trade remedies. Jay Carney, Mr Obama's spokesman, said the USTR action was the administration's seventh against China: "This has been in development for many, many months, and that's just a fact. It can't suddenly be a political action because it happens during the campaign.