Technical, sanitary rules used as trade barriers: US Trade Representative

CHINA uses dubious measures to prevent foreign concerns competing in its market, says a US Government, according to London's Financial Times.

While conceding Beijing had reduced tariffs and quotas, the annual report US Trade Representative's office said Chinese authorities still used domestic trading rights restrictions to skew government purchases towards its own companies as well as hoarding raw materials for internal use.

Officials are given too much discretionary power in China's agricultural inspection and quarantine service, said the report, and shipments were often helped up without warning.

US officials blamed Chinese protectionism for some of the bilateral trade deficit, along with the yuan's iron-clad link with the dollar.

But US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has since said he expects China to move towards currency flexibility, though he did not give a date. After touring a steel plant in Pennsylvania, he told reporters: "I am very confident that they are going to decide it is in their interest to move on currency reforms."

The US won a victory in a case at the World Trade Organisation which argued that China's licensing system for DVDs, books, music and newspapers discriminated against imports.

But White & Case international trade lawyer Walter Spak doubted litigating trade disputes was a solution. "The listing of trade barriers to US exports is only an initial step related to enforcement of trade rights," he said. "Trying to eliminate such practices is the difficult part. Even if this can be done, it will take time."

Concerns are growing about trade barriers arising from technical mandates and sanitary standards on agricultural produce. Such rules frequently play a more important role than tariffs in blocking imports, say free traders.

China continues to ban imports of poultry from several US states because of fears of bird flu. Washington says this flies in the face of scientific evidence that American chicken is safe.
 

(Source: Schednet)