US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to press China on green energy spending, subsidies that distort global market
- ‘Excess capacity poses risks not only to American workers and firms and to the global economy, but also to productivity and growth in the Chinese economy,’ she says
- Yellen will issue the warning when she travels to Guangzhou and Beijing in the coming weeks
American concerns over China’s green energy spending binge is likely to dominate the high-level talks between the two global powers in Beijing early next month.
Citing excess capacity in industries like solar, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries because of huge Chinese government subsidies, the problem will be “a key issue” in discussions with senior Chinese officials during her second trip to China in a year, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a speech on Wednesday.
“I will convey my belief that excess capacity poses risks not only to American workers and firms and to the global economy, but also to productivity and growth in the Chinese economy,” she said at a solar-cell factory in Norcross, Georgia.
She pledged to “press my Chinese counterparts to take necessary steps to address this issue” to create a “level playing field” for American companies and workers.
Yellen spoke at a Suniva manufacturing facility which had been shut down in 2017, in part because of cheap imports into the US market.
But as a result of green investments under the Inflation Reduction Act, the factory is scheduled to reopen this spring.