U.S. export control against China hurting American firms: Chinese minister

08:44, May 10, 2011

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Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming speaks at a press briefing during the economic track of the third round of U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in Washington D.C., the United States, May 9, 2011. The American companies are losing business opportunities and market share in China because of the export control policy against China, Chen said on Monday in Washington. (Xinhua/Yang Jian)

The American companies are losing business opportunities and market share in China because of the export control policy against China, said Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming on Monday in Washington.

"Because the U.S. restricts its export of high technology to China, American companies suffered a lot in terms of losing market share in China, " Chen said at a press briefing during the economic track of the third round of U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) which kicked off here.

"The current imbalance in trade between the two countries is the result of multiple reasons, and also a result of many years of trade imbalance," Chen said.

He said that the two sides addressed trade imbalance issue among other economic topics during the morning session of the economic dialogue.

"The way to resolve the imbalance is to ease the export control regime of the United States toward China and to encourage U.S. export to China rather than restricting Chinese export to the United States," he added.

Chen noted that the U.S. export control policy will not help U. S. government's goal of doubling export in five years and creating jobs in the U.S.

He said that China's trade is balanced with the rest of the world except the U.S.

China is the United States' second-largest trading partner and its third-largest export market, with bilateral trade totaling about 385 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, according to Chinese customs statistics.

The two sides also shared their views in terms of bilateral investment, the exploration of new economic cooperation areas and coordination in the multilateral arena, including Doha Round talks, Chen added.

During the first session of economic track dialogue, leaders of both sides said that the two countries need to build closer ties.

The two-day S&ED is co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, State Councilor Dai Bingguo and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The dialogue mechanism was upgraded from former Strategic Dialogue and biennial Strategic Economic Dialogue, which were initiated by the two heads of state in 2005 and 2006, respectively.