*EPF410 04/22/2004
Fact Sheet: U.S. Committed To Making Trade with China Fair, USTR Says
(USTR fact sheet released April 21) (700)
The United States is committed to holding China to its World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations and to making bilateral trade a two-way street, according to an April 21 fact sheet released by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Following is the text of the fact sheet:
(begin fact sheet)
Trade Facts
Office of the United States Trade Representative
www.ustr.gov
April 21, 2004
Making U.S.-China Trade a Two-Way Street:
A Track Record of Results
China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 - opening its large and growing market to American goods and services and committing to a series of sweeping economic reforms.
-- The United States did not reduce a single tariff or make any other market-opening concessions to China as a result of China's WTO accession.
Membership in the global rules-based trading system subjects China to the same rigorous standards of fairness, transparency and predictability that apply to the United States and more than 140 other economies around the world.
The United States is committed to holding China to its WTO obligations and to making bilateral trade a two-way street.
China has taken many steps to meet WTO requirements -- repealing or revising more than 1,100 laws and regulations, reducing tariffs, removing market access barriers, and establishing new transparency procedures.
But where implementation has slowed or performance has been incomplete, the United States has acted promptly to achieve results for American farmers, manufacturers and service providers -- using informal consultations where possible and formal mechanisms where necessary.
Achieving Results
U.S. officials have pressed China to remove remaining trade barriers and to implement its WTO commitments on schedule. As a result of these efforts, China is moving forward on a range of important issues.
China has agreed to further open its market to U.S. agriculture exports.
-- Easing import rules for agricultural commodities, facilitating record-setting sales of U.S. cotton to China in 2003 (totaling nearly $740 million).
-- Issuing safety certificates for biotech soybeans, allowing for unprecedented U.S. soybean exports to China in 2003 (totaling nearly $2.9 billion).
-- Ending arbitrary limits on pork and poultry shipments.
-- Adopting U.S.-proposed changes to meat and poultry labeling.
China has agreed to remove barriers to U.S. exports of manufactured goods, high-technology products and chemicals.
-- Opening the motor vehicle financing sector and easing auto import quotas, paving the way for increased sales of U.S.-designed and produced automobiles and parts.
-- Allowing more U.S. computers, telecommunications equipment and electronic components to enter its market at reduced or zero duties.
-- Removing preferential tariff treatment for exports from China's neighbors of boric acid and approximately 20 other chemicals.
-- Ending the practice of over-valuing U.S. digital media products for customs purposes and allowing those goods to enter at reduced duties.
China has agreed to changes that will further level the playing field for U.S. service providers:
-- Reducing high capitalization requirements for U.S. and other foreign insurance firms, and increasing the efficiency with which licensing decisions are made.
-- Stabilizing international telephone interconnection rates.
-- Removing burdensome weight and rate restrictions for express delivery companies, expanding the ability of U.S. firms to deliver packages into, out of and within China.
Enforcing WTO Obligations
Where informal consultations have not achieved necessary outcomes, the United States has used formal WTO mechanisms.
On March 18, 2004, the United States filed its first WTO case against China regarding its refund of value-added tax on integrated circuits produced in China, which discriminates against U.S. semiconductor exports. Dispute settlement consultations in this case will commence in Geneva the week of April 26.
In other cases, the United States has raised concerns at meetings of the 16 WTO councils and committees and actively used the Transitional Review Mechanism - a special multilateral mechanism at the WTO - to review China's implementation of its commitments.
It has also used consultations pursuant to a special provision of China's accession agreement to resolve key U.S. concerns on China's administration of tariff-rate quotas for agricultural commodities and related products like cotton, wheat and fertilizers.
(end fact sheet)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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