The 2017 National Trade Estimate Report features a new set of grievances concerning Chinese “barriers to digital trade” and blasts Beijing’s state-directed “Made in China 2025” plan for seeking to provide domestic companies advantages over foreign ones.
[Jack Caporal] March 30, 2017 [Inside US Trade]
The report from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, released annually, also reiterates longstanding complaints the U.S. has raised with China in a number of areas – and more stridently takes issue with so-called “secure and controllable” policies and services trade barriers.
The congressionally mandated report identifies the “the major developments and challenges with trade barriers to American exports around the globe,” USTR said in a statement, surveying “significant barriers to American exports, including tariffs, inhibitive sanitary and phytosanitary measures, government procurement, export subsidies, inadequate intellectual property rights, and barriers to investment, services and digital trade.”
China is a major concern in the report. On Chinese agriculture, it states that “delays in China’s approval process for agricultural products derived from biotechnology worsened in 2016, creating increased uncertainty among traders and resulting in adverse trade impact, particularly for U.S. exports of corn.” The report reiterates complaints about barriers to beef, poultry and pork imports from the U.S.
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