U.S./China Strategic Dialogue Should Focus on Lowering Trade Barriers, Say House Ways and Means Members

The U.S. should focus its efforts during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) on addressing significant and systemic market access barriers that impede U.S. exports and investment, said a group of House Ways and Means Committee Republicans in a April 27, 2012, letter. The lawmakers sent the letter Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Commerce Secretary John Bryson, and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

U.S. and Chinese officials will meet May 4-5 in Beijing for the S&ED. The committee members said U.S. exports are harmed by the Chinese Catalogue Guiding Foreign Investment issued last year without any liberalization and continued foreign ownership restrictions in 100 manufacturing and service sectors. China must open these closed sectors and the Administration should seek to address barriers through the resumption of bilateral investment treaty negotiations, said the lawmakers.

China also uses discriminatory standards to impede U.S. market access, said the group. Obtaining the mandatory China Compulsory Certification for certain products can delay those U.S.-made products from reach the market by six months or more, while Chinese-made products face no delay, the letter said. China also uses sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) that aren't supported by science and sometimes prohibit exports of U.S. agriculture products.

Chinese currency misalignment also continues to be a serious problem and continued pressure at the S&ED can add to ongoing multilateral efforts through the IMF, G20 and WTO, they said.