American Chamber wants action on China
BEIJING — American companies overwhelmingly feel less welcome than before in China and want the U.S. government to put more pressure on Beijing to level the playing field, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said Tuesday.
William Zarit, chairman of AmCham China, warned that Chinese officials had told him they would “definitely” retaliate if the administration introduced tariffs or other restrictions on Chinese imports as a result of ongoing investigations into steel and aluminum imports and intellectual property violations.
Zarit said U.S. companies do not want to see a trade war because it would obviously undermine their business in China.
But there is support, he said, for a tougher stance by the Trump administration, after years of bilateral talks that haven’t yielded much in the way of results, especially in terms of issues such as greater access to the Chinese market.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump told Reuters he was preparing to impose a big “fine” on China for its alleged theft of intellectual property as part of a broader effort to cut the U.S. trade deficit and level the playing field.
Lester Ross, chairman of AmCham China’s policy committee, said it was likely the Chinese authorities would target retaliation toward sectors that have “political resonance” in the United States.
In particular, he said, that might mean favoring Europe’s Airbus over Boeing for aircraft orders, or cutting imports of agricultural commodities, whose producers “are predominantly in states that voted for Trump.”
Companies say they are effectively excluded from several growing sectors of the Chinese economy, especially in the services sector where U.S. companies tend to be strong.
Yet AmCham China’s annual survey of business conditions also suggested growing optimism about the Chinese economy, with nearly two-third of members reporting revenue growth and nearly threequarters reporting they are profitable, the highest proportion in three years.
Members were surveyed between Oct. 23 and Nov. 26, around the time of Trump’s visit to China, and some 400 companies responded.
Some 78 percent said positive bilateral relations between China and the United States are “extremely” or “very” important for their business growth, up from 64 percent in 2015. The was also growing optimism about those relations: 36 percent forecast relations would improve this year, up from 17 percent a year before, and only 16 percent thought they would deteriorate.
The greatest challenge to doing business here: inconsistent regulatory interpretation and unclear laws, followed by rising labor costs. Some 75 percent of respondents said they felt less welcome here than before, compared to 81 percent in 2016.