The US is concerned about China's apparent backtracking on free trade commitments it made to join the WTO and is forming a special task force to monitor the situation, according to reports.
The US has already noticed "non-compliance" and "slow compliance" in the six weeks since China entered the WTO, said Jeffrey Bader, assistant US trade representative for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia.
If China can't break out of the old command economy-style of doing business, there will be trouble ahead for the bilateral relationship, Bader was quoted as saying by a Chinese-language economic daily yesterday.
But against the background of the US concerns China's first representative to the WTO in Geneva, Sun Zhenyu (
"We will work hard to ensure the new world trade rules will take into account the interests of all members, especially developing members," Sun said.
Sun, who is vice-minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation was expected to open the Chinese Embassy to the WTO yesterday, according to the China Daily.
In response to these concerns, the US government has established an inter-agency task force to see if China delivers on promises to open its markets and ensure free and fair trade practices, said Bader who delivered a report to Congress on the status of US-Sino trade relations. Bader pointed out that US trade representative Robert Zoellick had made it clear to the Chinese that if US exports encountered problems then it would be a "two-way street."
The main problem has been China's delay in issuing regulations to implement new "tariff-rate quotas" to open its market to more foreign wheat, corn and other farm goods. Those were supposed to be in place by the start of the year.
Heading up the monitoring team will be US ambassador to China Clark Randt, who is a lawyer and former Commerce Department official who is an expert on Chinese law, according to reports.
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