US vows ‘aggressive’ stance with China

WASHINGTON – The United States said Tuesday it wanted to move more aggressively to resolve trade frictions with China, warning that it would not hesitate to drag the Asian giant to the World Trade Organisation.

Washington would pursue dialogue with Beijing only if it was the ‘fastest, best, and surest way’ to resolve trade disputes, US Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk said.’But when our preferred course doesn’t work, we will not hesitate to use other tools, such as dispute settlement, to enforce the rules as written,’ he said at a forum of the US-China Business Council, a group of about 250 American companies doing business with China.’If we have to file at the WTO, we’ll file,’ he said, citing seven key bilateral disputes that Washington had raised so far with the global trade watchdog.’We will not yield on enforcing the right of American businesses and exporters to compete on a level playing field with China,’ Kirk said.In some cases, he pointed out, China’s industrial and procurement policies, as well as standards and licensing procedures, favoured domestic and state-owned enterprises and discriminated against foreign firms.He said China should also ‘do a better job of enforcing intellectual property rights…and standards on the environment, labour, and product safety.’The United States has often expressed concern about access to the world’s biggest market in a bid to ease the burgeoning trade deficit with China, a topic often raised by American lawmakers from farm producing constituencies.US lawmakers have also long accused Beijing of keeping its yuan currency artificially low – a step they said would boost Chinese exports by making them less expensive relative to US goods on global markets.Kirk on Tuesday prodded China, now the third-largest buyer of US exports, to act swiftly on market reforms, saying American producers needed enhanced market access now to save jobs and create new, better-paying jobs at home.’So we need results sooner rather than later,’ he said. ‘Dialogue and negotiation normally resolve trade frictions far more quickly than litigation. And in a tough economy, time is not on our side.’Kirk also said that a US-China government forum presently dealing with bilateral trade issues – the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) – should be more action oriented in grappling with trade disputes.-Nampa-AFP