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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Lesley Lopez ([email protected])
O: 202-429-0340
US-China Business Council President John Frisbie released the following comments upon the close of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED):
“As the eighth annual Strategic & Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in Beijing concludes, I am pleased to hear that China’s updated BIT negative list offer will likely come next week. This long-awaited revision has the potential to significantly reduce market access barriers for American companies in China, and is an essential component of the high-standard BIT that USCBC’s member companies desire. Prospects for concluding a high-standard BIT have always depended on whether China is ready to remove foreign ownership restrictions in so many sectors of its economy. If the new “negative list” offer is significantly reduced in length from the previous offer, that will bode well for the negotiations.”
“China’s reiteration that there is no basis for sustained depreciation of the RMB exchange rate should also be encouraging to markets and businesses. There were several other areas of incremental progress coming out the S&ED, but I suspect that many issues are being teed up for Presidents Obama and Xi to address when they meet in September on the margins of the G20 summit.”
“As we approach the close of the Obama administration, it is important to remember that the S&ED was established in recognition of the need to expand engagement to address the array of issues in the US-China relationship. In the next administration, the mechanisms for dialogue can be tweaked to make further improvements and become more effective, but high-level engagement is now mandatory in the US-China relationship. As the two largest economies in the world, we need to be talking more to each other, not less.”
The US-China Business Council (USCBC) is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of roughly 220 American companies that do business with China. For over four decades, USCBC has provided unmatched information, advisory, advocacy, and program services to its membership. Through its offices in Washington, DC; Beijing; and Shanghai, USCBC is uniquely positioned to serve its members’ interests in the United States and China.
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