Beijing: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China to work more cooperatively with American companies eager for a larger share of the Chinese market.
"For trade to work in any economy, it needs to be a level playing field where domestic and international companies can compete freely," she said yesterday at Shanghai's Pudong Airport after meeting with 15 US aviation executives to discuss the challenges they face operating in China.
US companies "want to sell goods made by American workers to Chinese consumers with rising income and increasing demand."
The Obama administration sees China as central to its goal of doubling exports in five years and creating two million US jobs.
Clinton and officials including Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will address trade and investment barriers that could impede that goal at the second annual US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue that starts tomorrow in Beijing.
Transparency
Clinton said China should increase its transparency in rule making and copyright protection laws, calling them "vitally important in the 21st century economy."
China is America's second-biggest trading partner after Canada, and the largest foreign investor in US government debt.
While there is scepticism in some quarters about how realistic the administration's export goal is, US officials are confident they can meet it, Commerce Department Undersecretary Francisco Sanchez said Saturday in Shanghai.
"We can do that," he said.
Trade and commercial diplomacy were to be the main themes of Clinton's trip before they were overshadowed by a report finding North Korea responsible for the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel.
At the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, the US Pavilion highlighted American companies including Pepsi and Chevron, whose donations helped build the 6,000-square metre space.
US officials in the Beijing talks will focus on a new Chinese contracting programme that could threaten Obama's export goal.
China last year announced an "indigenous innovation" system that proposed to buy only domestically-made software and equipment.
"In the coming days, officials at the highest level in our administration will discuss issues of economic balance and competition with our Chinese counterparts," Clinton said.
The new rules could significantly disadvantage foreign companies interested in bidding for government procurement contracts worth an estimated $85 billion (Dh312 billion) a year, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a speech in Beijing on May 21.
"Indigenous innovation limits foreign direct investment and imports from abroad that can deliver new products and services to the Chinese people and enhance innovation within Chinese partner companies," Locke said.
Locke brought with him 24 US companies seeking to expand their presence in China, all involved in clean energy technologies or the storage and transmission of electricity.
