Chinese officials said foreign producers of new energy vehicles will be eligible for subsidies on an equal basis with local rivals, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said in a statement. It said Beijing promised not to require them to help Chinese partners set up new brands or hand over technology — two conditions automakers worried might be imposed as a condition of being allowed to make or sell cars in China.
Access to China’s markets for high-tech goods is especially sensitive for the United States and other Western economies that want technology exports to shore up flagging economic growth and cut high unemployment.
“They intend to provide a fair and level playing field in those industries,’’ Bryson said after the two-day meeting of the U.S.-Chinese Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade in the southwestern city of Chengdu.
The top Chinese envoy, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, “said there would be significant opportunities to Chinese and U.S. and other foreign companies,’’ Bryson said.
That pledge also covers high-end equipment manufacturing, energy-saving and environmental technologies, biotechnology, information technology, alternative energy and advanced materials, according to the U.S. Trade Representative.
The U.S.-Chinese committee aims to defuse trade tensions by focusing on individual policy disputes. Previous meetings have produced pledges by Beijing to lower barriers to imports of American beef and to fight rampant Chinese software piracy.
This week’s meeting came amid mounting demands by some American lawmakers for punitive tariffs on Chinese goods if Beijing fails to ease exchange-rate controls. They say China’s yuan is kept undervalued, giving its exporters an unfair trade advantage and wiping out jobs in the United States.
Also Monday, the two governments announced agreements to improve cooperation on intellectual property, technology, energy, trade statistics and business relations.
