China on Thursday promised to speed up imports of pharmaceuticals and medical devices from the US and enforce its anti-monopoly laws equally among Chinese and foreign companies.
Those commitments were announced at an annual trade meeting between the two countries that took place in Chicago.
Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Zhang Xiangchen (張向晨) told reporters that China would work to streamline the review and approval process for US products in the pharmaceutical and medical industries and address a backlog within two or three years.
“We will also reduce as much as possible needless clinical trials,” he said through an interpreter.
Topics at this year’s US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade also included protection of intellectual property and trade secrets, as well as ensuring there’s a level playing field for US companies in China.
The yearly gatherings are meant to resolve disputes before they disrupt trade.
The US side was led by US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and US Trade Representative Michael Froman.
Pritzker said China’s promises in the medical and pharmaceutical areas “should lead to [an] increase in US exports and US jobs in these two important sectors.”
She also called Chinese movement on antitrust laws “significant.”
Business groups have expressed concern about a wave of Chinese anti-monopoly investigations, suggesting Beijing is improperly using those probes to pressure foreign companies to cut prices or change business practices.
Mentioning one specific step, Zhang said China would try, when possible, to allow US legal counsel for US companies to attend meetings in antitrust proceedings.
Despite such pledges at the yearly gatherings, US companies have complained of slow progress and are pushing for faster strides toward an investment treaty between the two countries. A treaty would help make operating conditions in China’s state-dominated economy clearer and more predictable, they say.
Pritzker said that “none of this is to say that we got all the outcomes we wanted or that all the outcomes are perfect.”
Trade between the two countries totaled US$617 billion last year, and US firms have rushed to invest in China, but foreign business groups argue that China improperly uses industrial standards and other regulation to shield its own companies from competition.
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