According to an article on Bloomberg.com, Democrats along with Senator Arlen Specter backed a limit on Chinese Tire imports as a means for President Barack Obama to change United States trade policy. There was a hearing at the United States International Trade Commission on June 2, 2009, that had lawmakers predicting that the President would set aside $1.7 billion in automobile tires from China. Here is this quote from the article: “‘It is my hope that the Obama administration will go in a new direction and enforce the trade laws,” Senator Robert Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, told the commission.’ The meeting was meant to test a promise President Obama made while running saying he would crack down on unfair trade practices from China. The article states that: “During the Bush administration the ITC recommended tariffs or quotas on products from China in four cases; each time President George W. Bush rejected the guidance.” The Union Steelworkers union wants Obama to cut automobile tire imports from China by more than half. To the level that is was in 2005. “More than 5,100 U.S. workers at tire factories have lost their jobs as a result of the low-cost imports, the union says. U.S. tire companies including Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Goodrich Corp. aren’t part of the case and didn’t testify today.” This job loss has made the Unions and many Americans putting themselves behind the Democrats who have been meeting’s mission. The economy and job loss is a very important topic right now and cutting foreign imports, especially those with unfair practices could put some jobs back into the United States. The big tire companies however are not part of the case, so it is hard to tell if those companies are in on the hearings and meeting or support their initiatives. Only the future will tell where this story will go and how President Obama feels about the matter, but it could effect the American tire industry and global tire industry in the near future.