China Maintains ‘Wall’ to U.S. Imports, Report Finds
Despite repeated promises to open its markets to foreign goods, China maintains a bewildering network of licenses, regulations, quotas and tariffs ranging up to 150% that keeps its economy “highly protectionist,” the Clinton administration said Monday in its annual report on foreign trade barriers.
The report by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office on restrictions used by 42 nations and four trading blocs to curb imports said “significant barriers to trade still exist,” despite almost 200 market-opening agreements signed by the administration in the last three years.
The longest section of the report covered Japanese practices, including safety standards, testing, labeling and certification requirements that hamper access to the Japanese market--despite policies that, on the surface, appear to support free trade.
But in some of the report’s sharpest language, the administration said China has failed to implement the market-access measures it pledged in a 1992 agreement with the U.S. The report is sure to add to U.S.-China tensions, already aggravated by Beijing’s attempt to intimidate voters in Taiwan and by continued human rights violations, and could complicate renewal of China’s most favored nation trading status, which must be acted upon in June.
China has long followed protectionist policies. But because of its burgeoning domestic economy and a billion-person market, trade with Beijing is becoming increasingly attractive, not just to the U.S. but to the rest of the world. However, due to Chinese restrictions, U.S. exports to China last year totaled only $11.7 billion, less than a quarter of the $45.6 billion in imports from China. Washington’s $33.8-billion trade deficit with China was second only to the $59.3-billion U.S. deficit with Japan. Two-way U.S.-Japanese trade was worth about three times as much as U.S.-Chinese trade at $187.9 billion.
For President Clinton, the 357-page document constituted a crucial report card on a key aspect of his economic policy, an effort to promote the growth of jobs in the U.S. export sector by demanding access to foreign markets. Although Mickey Kantor, chief of the trade office, proclaimed success for the administration’s policies, imports continued to outpace exports.
Imports exceeded exports by $159.6 billion last year. For January, the only month for which numbers are available so far this year, the deficit was $10.26 billion.
Under a law enacted in 1984, Kantor’s office has six months to establish a priority list of the foreign trade practices that most severely restrict U.S. exports. The list serves as a guide to efforts to negotiate elimination of those restrictions.
Jennifer Hillman, general counsel of the trade office, vowed to use all available means to force foreign countries to roll back unfair trade restrictions. She noted that Washington has already filed 11 complaints under the conflict resolution procedures of the year-old World Trade Organization. The U.S. complaints are almost a third of the total of 34 cases that the organization has accepted.
