Obama Files A Complaint Over China.

WASHINGTON -- If there was ever any doubt about the political salience of China in an election year, it was erased Tuesday, when President Obama stepped before cameras in the White House Rose Garden to announce a procedural move in a long-running trade dispute with China over rare earth metals. Mr. Obama said that the United States was lodging a formal ''request for consultations'' with China at the World Trade Organization, the first step toward filing a legal case against the Chinese government over its ostensible hoarding of metals that are used to manufacture a range of sophisticated technology products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]