China trade delegation chief raises US restrictions at Washington meeting

Commerce vice-minister Wang Shouwen raised China's concerns over US trade restrictions during a meeting in Washington on Thursday with undersecretary for international trade Marisa Lago.

Wang was in the US as head of the Chinese delegation for the first meeting of a China-US trade working group aimed at scaling up communication channels to better manage differences between the two countries amid their rising tensions.

According to a Chinese commerce ministry statement on Friday, Wang and Lago discussed tariff and market access issues. Wang also called for an expansion of cooperation and management of differences between the US and China.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

The statement said Wang expressed concerns about the additional Section 301 tariffs imposed by the US and related investigation applications against China, as well as the "overstretching" of the concept of national security.

During the meeting, Wang also raised US sanctions on Chinese companies, the revision of trade remedy investigation rules, two-way investment restrictions, and unfair treatment of Chinese businesses.

"China-US economic and trade relations should be a stabilising force in relations between the two countries. China is willing to work with the United States ... to create a good environment for enterprises ... to conduct trade and investment cooperation," he said.

Both sides agreed to strengthen communications on export control rules, with Lago set to lead another delegation to China in the second half of this year to convene a second working group meeting, according to the Chinese statement.

They also agreed to continue discussions on trade facilitation, including by supporting each other's events, such as the China International Import Expo and the China-California Business Forum.

The US commerce department said Lago also raised Washington's concerns about restricted market access for American companies, cross-border data flows and regulatory transparency.

Wang's trip follows Chinese President Xi Jinping's phone call with his US counterpart Joe Biden on Tuesday - their first since last year's San Francisco summit where they agreed to establish a range of working groups to continue communications.

The first meeting of the trade working group took months of preparation, which included meetings between Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and his US counterpart Gina Raimondo. Economy and finance working groups have met a few times.

In his phone call with Biden on Tuesday, Xi said China would not "sit idle" if the US insists on suppressing China's hi-tech development.

Under the Biden administration, US-China competition has intensified on all fronts. Washington retained the tariffs slapped on a wide range of Chinese goods by former president Donald Trump, adding a semiconductor export ban and restrictions on US investments in China's hi-tech fields.

The US has long complained about the lack of a level playing field for its businesses in China, saying tightened state regulations and frequent raids on American companies have hampered their development.

Washington has also become increasingly alarmed over "overproduction" of cheaper Chinese electric vehicles and is considering a duty increase to stop them flooding the US market.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen - who is also on a four-day trip to China - flagged that she would be raising these concerns in her meetings with Chinese officials.

Yellen was in Guangzhou, in the southern province of Guangdong, on Friday where she was due to meet the province's governor Wang Weizhong and Vice-Premier He Lifeng, before travelling to Beijing until Monday, for a series of meetings including with Premier Li Qiang.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2024. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.