Trade Committees Voice Concerns Ahead of JCCT Meeting

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), Ranking Member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are concerned with China's economic model and use of state-owned enterprises, they said in a letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The letter was sent ahead of a meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade.

"We continue to hear an increasing number of complaints about China’s WTO-inconsistent retaliation against U.S. companies," the letter said. "The United States has already brought, and won, a case at the WTO condemning China’s retaliatory use of trade remedy laws. But the problem is broader. Unilateral retaliation undermines the rules-based trading system and cannot be tolerated."

Better measures are also needed to determine compliance, they said. "We have repeatedly called on the Administration to develop meaningful metrics to measure progress. We were encouraged by the announcement that the United States and China will use software sales as one of the metrics in determining whether China has implemented its commitments. The Administration should build on this progress and develop metrics for other areas. The Administration must ensure that progress is measured not only in the number of laws repealed but in new market opportunities for U.S. companies and products."