US, Japan Urge China To Resist Protectionist Trade Policies
Posted on: Monday, 4 May 2009, 15:45 CDT
Trade negotiators from the United States and Japan called on China to forego new rules on foreign-made technology products, urging the nation to resist enacting protectionist policies amid a global economic recession.
After a meeting in Washington, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Japan’s trade minister Toshihiro said China should abandon plans that would require certification of information technology products sold to the Chinese government.
In a joint statement, Nikai and Kirk said called such rules "inconsistent with international norms."
China says its inspectors must examine and certify 13 categories of IT products, including network security software, before any foreign firms can sell the products to the government. But Japan, the U.S. and leading IT manufacturers worry that China will use the new rules to unfairly obtain trade secrets about their products.
China recently delayed the implementation of the rules amid pressure, which were initially set to take effect this month. They are now due to be enacted in May 2010.
China emphasized that the certification would only be required to sell products to the government, and would not apply to all commercial sales.
For their part, Nikai and Kirk pledged cooperation in fighting the global economic slowdown and in re-starting deadlocked global trade negotiations.
"Protectionism must be avoided," the statement read, adding that an "ambitious agenda" would be sought for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which meets this year in Singapore.
Next year’s APEC annual summit will be held in Japan, and the U.S. will host the event in 2011.
In a separate move, Kirk thanked the Japanese minister for not banning imports of U.S. pork products in reaction to the recent swine flu outbreak.
The United States and Japan have long clashed over Tokyo’s restrictions of U.S. beef products due to Japan’s concerns of mad cow disease.
Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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