US to seek concrete progress to boost exports in China trade talks

The annual U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, or JCCT, meeting on Nov. 20-21 “is an important opportunity to address and resolve key trade concerns with China,” U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson said in a statement.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will travel with Bryson to Chengdu for the talks just a week after President Barack Obama hosts Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Asia-Pacific leaders in Honolulu for an annual summit meeting.

Obama is expected to press Hu on China's currency practices, which many U.S. lawmakers believe give Chinese companies an unfair trade advantage and has become an issue in next year's presidential election.

But the JCCT is traditionally a forum for the United States to push for progress on an array of other Chinese policies that thwart U.S. exports and sales.

“Through this year's JCCT, we are pressing China for concrete and measurable results on a number of significant issues including China's policies on intellectual property rights, investment and innovation, as well as a range of sector-specific industrial policies,” Kirk said.

Last week, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said the United States was “alarmed” by reports China was forcing foreign automakers to transfer valuable electric car technology to participate in China's “New Energy Vehicles.”

He also criticized China for maintaining an 8-year-old import ban on U.S. beef, lavishing subsidies on its steel, chemical and other industrial sectors and restricting foreign investment in fields such telecommunications, financial services, express delivery, pharmaceuticals, mining and media.

U.S. trade officials see the 28-year-old JCCT as a valuable forum for resolving trade spats before they become more serious problems that require action at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In addition, some disputes are not covered by WTO rules, so the months of meetings that precede each JCCT provide a valuable opportunity to air concerns and work toward solutions, an Obama administration official said.

Many of the issues are more complex but lower-profile than the currency dispute, which revolves around U.S. concerns that China deliberately undervalues its currency by as much as 15 to 40 percent to give its companies an unfair price advantage.

Last month, the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate passed a bill to crack down on the practice, but the Republican-run House of Representatives has refused to take up the measure on the grounds it could start a trade war.

House Democrats waged another effort on Thursday to force action on the bill, but were turned back.

At the 2010 JCCT, China promised action on a long list of U.S. concerns, including counterfeiting and piracy of American goods, government procurement policies that discriminate against foreign technology and the development of “smart grid” standards that threaten to prevent U.S. sales.

It also made commitments in sectors including telecommunications, express delivery, pharmaceuticals and medical devices and travel and tourism.

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