Recently, the U.S. trade negotiating delegation led by James Mendenhall, general counsel of the U.S. Office of Trade Negotiations, came to China. The U.S. dispatched to China after the February 14 Portman report was announced. The first trade delegation, at the pre-departure press conference, Mendenhall said that his visit was part of Portman’s announcement of the elimination of China’s trade barriers.
Earlier, Portman threatened in the report, will be sued to WTO within a few weeks to China's lack of protection of intellectual property rights and the high tariffs on imported auto parts.
Mendenhall said that although it is impossible to disclose when the United States will raise the above two charges, his visit is crucial. According to reports, the delegation to China will obtain information about China’s government’s computer software, music, and other cases of piracy that caused huge losses to US companies and related information.
At the same time, on April 1, 2005, China began to implement the "Administrative Measures for the Import of Auto Parts That Constitute the Characteristics of Complete Vehicles." This approach stipulates that if all parts and semi-parts are imported, cars are assembled or imported, or some other When the price of a vehicle (system) or imported parts reaches 60% or more of the total price of the vehicle, it is certified as an imported component that constitutes the characteristics of the vehicle. In accordance with this requirement, the assembled vehicle must also be subject to a relatively high tariff and import value-added tax for the entire vehicle. After the implementation of this rule, the United States and the European Union have repeatedly raised objections.
But Wu Jiahuang, China’s former WTO negotiator and head of the Customs and Customs Department, told this reporter: “China introduced new management measures to avoid tax losses caused by the assembly of cars. It is wrong for the United States to submit this issue to the WTO.â€
He proposed that the relevant provisions of the WTO on how to identify non-instrumented devices should be managed by the World Customs Organization headquartered in Brussels and not within the scope of the WTO's terms of reference.
It is understood that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce attaches great importance to this trip to the delegation and should arrange for interviews with senior leaders. At the same time, the Sino-US talks will also prepare for the China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade to be held in Washington on April 11.
However, Vice Minister Wei Jianguo of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China had previously said in an interview that China and the United States will negotiate on a wide range of issues of mutual concern and both parties hope to obtain some consensus.
According to sources, the contents of the talks may include sensitive issues in other economic and trade relations such as textiles and the exchange rate of the renminbi.
On April 15 before Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States, the U.S. government will also submit a report to Congress on whether China has manipulated the exchange rate to obtain a trade surplus. US Treasury Secretary Snow has threatened that if China does not allow the yuan to continue to appreciate, he will The report will confirm China's manipulation of exchange rates. However, Wei Jianguo said that the Chinese government has its own views on the exchange rate issue and will not succumb to external pressure.