US delegation woos Chinese
States, companies showcase investment projects
A US team of government officials and business representatives kicked off a series of events in China on Monday to attract Chinese investment in the US, amid rising uncertainties in bilateral economic and trade relations.
SelectUSA, an interagency government program under the US Department of Commerce, made its first stop for this year in Changchun, capital of Northeast China’s Jilin Province.
In Changchun, government officials from several US states, including California, Pennsylvania, Indiana and New York, and business representatives from EastWest Bank and JP Morgan Chase, showcased potential investment projects in the US, chinanews. com reported.
The SelectUSA China Road Show, which takes US economic development organizations across China to meet with Chinese companies seeking investment opportunities in the US, will stop in five other cities in China this year.
In addition to Changchun, the team will visit Jinan, capital of East China’s Shandong Province; Zhengzhou, Central China’s Henan Province; Kunming, capital of Southwest China’s Yunnan Province; Xiamen, East China’s Fujian Province and Nanjing, capital of East China’s Jiangsu Province, according to a press release on the program’s website.
Uncertainties in the US market have grown since US President Donald Trump took office. Trump has vowed to put America first in economic and trade policies and punish those hurt the US economy and take away US jobs.
Adding to the uncertainties was a suggestion from the Trump administration that the US is not bound by WTO rules and might ignore certain decisions that it deems unfair and harmful to the US economy, according to a trade policy agenda sent to the US Congress on March 1.
Trump’s tough stance on China, which he claimed has “killed” US manufacturing jobs, also posed uncertainties in the largest bilateral relationship in the world. The president has suggested that he would impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports, designate China as a currency manipulator and take other actions against China.
Chinese foreign direct investment in the US has been skyrocketing in recent years.
The number surged from $ 9.17 billion in 2011 to more than $ 20.7 billion in 2015, according to data posted on SelectUSA program’s website.
“While the economic fundamentals and the deal pipeline suggest that 2017 will be another boom year for Chinese investment in the US, the political realities on both sides pose a major downside risk to both pending transactions and new deal flow in coming months,” the report said.