China’s Xi promises market opening as import fair begins
SHANGHAI (AP) — President Xi Jinping promised Monday to open China’s growing consumer market wider at an import fair meant to help defuse complaints Beijing abuses the global trading system. But he offered no response to U.S. and European complaints about technology policy and investment curbs.
The China International Import Expo is part of efforts to develop China-centered trading networks while resisting pressure to roll back industry plans that Washington, Europe, Japan and other governments say violate its market-opening obligations.
“It is our sincere commitment to open the Chinese market,” Xi said in a speech to a VIP audience that included Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Xi promised to cut costs for importers and improve consumer spending power to help boost imports.
The president made no mention of the standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump over Chinese plans for state-led development of technology industries. But in an indirect reference to Trump’s “America first” policies and threats of import controls, Xi appealed to other governments to “jointly safeguard free trade.”
Some 3,600 companies from 152 countries selling everything from Egyptian dates to German factory machinery are attending the five-day event at a cavernous convention center that bills itself as one of the world’s biggest buildings.
Prime ministers and other senior officials of governments including Egypt, Pakistan and Vietnam also were attending the fair. The United States - China’s biggest trading partner - did not send a high-level envoy.
Xi’s government is emphasizing the promise of a growing consumer market of 1.4 billion people to help deflect complaints that it subsidizes fledgling technology suppliers and shields them from competition.
Business groups say China still hampers access to industries including finance and logistics. They say regulators are trying to squeeze foreign competitors out of promising fields such as information security.
Xi promised steps that might address such complaints if carried out, including easing restrictions on foreign competitors in finance, education, telecoms and health care. He gave no details or a timetable but said the ruling party already was carrying out changes promised over the past year.
Businesspeople and economists welcomed the promises but said Beijing needs to act promptly to dispel concern about the cooling, state-dominated economy.
The speech “is at least a tacit acknowledgement that much needs to be done,” the chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, William Zarit, said in an email. “We will see if this leads to the timely sweeping reforms needed for a fair and reciprocal bilateral commercial relationship.”