U.S. trade mission to China to focus on clean energy
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While the two countries enjoy enormous cooperation opportunities in many areas, the U.S. Commerce Department has imposed a series of tariffs on Chinese products and many Chinese companies complain they have been affected by the rising protectionist measures taken by U.S. government.
Locke rebuffed these complaints, saying he had explained to Chinese officials it was not the United States government that brought the cases.
"It's not the policy of the United States government to file these cases. These cases are filed by companies within the United States who feel that the actions of a company from another country (were affecting them)," he told Xinhua.
He also noted that less than 3 percent of all goods sold from China into the United States were subject to duties in question.
"So 97 percent of all the goods coming from China are without any type of penalties or dumping duties or counter-veiling subsidies," Locke said. "We should not focus on the number of complaints."
Many Chinese officials have argued the U.S. export control against China has already limited their access to the Chinese market.
They believe the achievement of trade balance between the two countries rests not with restricting China's exports to the U.S., but with increasing U.S. exports to China.
Secretary Locke echoed the opinion.
While he insisted that national security should be the U.S.'s overriding objective, he also admitted "there are so many things now that are on the various control lists that really should not be on the control list."
He also told reporters the U.S. government was reviewing its high-tech control systems and the result would be announced in the next few months.
He said the current system had strong protections for both sophisticated technologies that could affect U.S. national security, and technologies that were readily available from around the world, which really made no sense?
"So we need to reduce those restrictions and make it easier for those items to be exported," Locke said.
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