China looks to Amcham Shanghai to lobby against US tariffs

Deputy foreign minister Xie Feng calls on American business leaders to ‘exert active influence’ on Washington to end trade war
Xie stresses need for greater cooperation between China and US, plays up Beijing’s reform efforts according to foreign ministry statement

US-China relations

Sarah Zhengin Beijing

Published: 2:00pm, 26 Apr 2021

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China’s foreign vice-minister Xie Feng has called on Shanghai-based US business leaders to lobby Washington for the removal of tariffs on Chinese goods.

Xie – who was appointed in February to his new role in charge of policy planning and US affairs – sat down on Thursday with the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai’s chairman Jeff Lehman, president Ker Gibbs, and representatives from major companies including General Motors, Ford, Disney, Delta, United Airlines and the United Parcel Service (UPS).

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According to a statement released on Sunday by China’s foreign ministry, Xie stressed the need for greater cooperation between China and the US, likening competition between the major powers to a “track and field competition rather than a gladiator duel to the death”.

“US businesses are stakeholders in cooperation between China and the US,” he said. “We hope that everyone will exert active influence to push the US government to cancel its tariffs on China, to stop its ‘decoupling’ efforts, and to stop unreasonably suppressing Chinese businesses, providing a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese businesses in the US.”

Xie also played up China’s reform efforts, including its dual circulation strategy – which aims to reduce economic reliance on overseas demand to keep its vast manufacturing apparatus running – and plans for a more “market-oriented, legally-based and internationalised business environment”.

The US business community in China has long shared its concerns over unfair market access, state subsidies to domestic firms, and intellectual property theft – all sticking points used by Washington to justify tariffs on Chinese goods.

AmCham Shanghai pressed for more help for US business employees travelling back to China, as well as challenges involving Covid-19 vaccines, during the meeting, which lasted nearly two hours.

“Mobility is a key issue for companies and there are a number of choke points connected to Covid-19 that have limited mobility including travel restrictions, vaccines and quarantines. They appreciated the Chinese government’s efforts in managing Covid-19 and hoped that more can be done to address these choke points and allow for more mobility,” a statement from the business group said.

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According to an earlier statement from AmCham Shanghai, Gibbs also met on Thursday with Zhang Shaogang, vice-chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) – a national agency for foreign trade and investment – to discuss US-China economic and trade relations and Covid-19 policies.

Beijing has been pushing for a reset in its ties with Washington, but US President Joe Biden’s administration has yet to ease up on the ongoing trade war between the countries, with billions in tariffs levied on both sides. As tensions have escalated between the world’s largest economies on multiple fronts, including over human rights concerns in China, the US has also banned all cotton and tomato exports from Xinjiang over Beijing’s alleged repression of ethnic minorities in the region.

While Biden’s team has characterised the relationship as involving “confrontation, competition and cooperation”, Beijing has been keen to play up areas for cooperation instead. But tensions have played out even on global issues such as climate change, with China declining to announce new commitments at Biden’s climate summit last week and Chinese President Xi Jinping saying developed countries were the ones needing to take further action.