Top trade lawmakers press for Chinese commitment to changes

{mosads}The meetings with China’s new leadership presents “an important opportunity to address China’s barriers to U.S. trade and investment, encourage China’s efforts to rebalance its economy and establish a clear path to achieve market-based reforms,” they wrote.

The meetings involve Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Secretary of State John Kerry, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman, along with top Chinese officials, State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vice Premier Wang Yang.

All four officials are leading their first S&ED talks, which include the heads of 14 U.S. government agencies and 16 from China.

Vice President Biden will open up the talks on Wednesday morning.

In the letter, they insist that China move away from an economic model dominated by state-owned enterprises, trade-distorting subsidies, indigenous innovation, intellectual property theft and other forms of economic protectionism.

The lawmakers expressed specific concerns about the growing amount of trade-secret theft and espionage activity targeting the United States and its companies.

“We understand that much of this activity is carried out with the support of the Chinese government,” they wrote. “The theft of proprietary information threatens to undermine our economic relationship, is unacceptable, and must stop.”

They argue that while there has been some progress in certain areas, “China has failed to fully implement its past commitments” including better protection and enforcement of intellectual property as well as a comprehensive software legalization program that applies to all levels of government. 

“China’s opaque and discriminatory regulatory process and investment restrictions significantly impede the ability of U.S. companies to bring products and services to market and allow China to give its companies a head-start and first-mover advantage,” they wrote. 

China’s currency policies continue to irritate lawmakers who have sought ways, including economic punishment, to force China to let the yuan’s value rise at a faster rate. 

“China must stop intervening massively and in one direction in the foreign exchange markets, and move more rapidly toward allowing the renminbi exchange rate to be set by market forces,” the wrote.

On top of that, Beijing must accelerate financial sector and other structural reforms. 

“These steps are essential to implementing China’s own commitment to rebalance its economy and would improve the ability of U.S. businesses to compete in China, and around the world, on a level playing field.”