Gala 2024
US Companies Favor the Phase One Deal, Split on Section 301
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact in Washington, DC:
Doug Barry ([email protected]; 202-429-0340)
Contact in Beijing:
Lipei Zhang ([email protected]; 86-10-6512-5854)
WASHINGTON – February 13, 2020 – US companies are generally pleased with the Phase One trade agreement, according to a member survey by the US-China Business Council (USCBC), a Washington-based trade association of companies that do business in China.
The survey results show 78 percent of respondents having a favorable view of the deal, as it halts tariff increases and stabilizes the bilateral relationship. Only 12 percent hold a negative view of the agreement.
“Companies view the agreement as a glass slightly more than half full,” said USCBC President Craig Allen. “We’ll be polling members on an ongoing basis in order to measure any changes in their experience with the agreement. A lot will depend on China’s compliance during the two-year duration of the agreement.”
While 60 percent of respondents say they will be directly impacted by Phase One commitments, only 22 percent say their company is likely to use the deal’s dispute resolution mechanism.
Companies are already looking ahead to “phase two” negotiations for which there is no official time frame. More than half of respondents say it is still too early to tell if USTR’s Section 301 report on China’s trade practices and subsequent costs were worth it.
“The value of these surveys is that they provide a feedback loop to both governments,” said Allen. “They can then tweak their compliance and dispute resolution processes accordingly. We have every reason to believe that both the US and China sides want the agreement to succeed.”
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