US business trust in China is wearing thin, warns US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo
- ‘Patience is wearing thin among American business. They need and deserve a predictable environment and a level playing field,’ the US commerce secretary said
- The US and China used to be each other’s largest trade partners. The US now trades more with Canada and Mexico; China trades more with Southeast Asia
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned China in interviews broadcast on Sunday that the patience of US business was “wearing thin,” saying American companies deserved a “predictable environment and a level playing field.”
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“China is making it more difficult,” Raimondo told CBS’s Face the Nation. “I was very clear with China that we need to – patience is wearing thin among American business. They need and deserve a predictable environment and a level playing field. And hopefully China will heed that message so we can have a stable growing commercial relationship.”
Raimondo has said US firms faced new challenges, among them unexplained large fines, raids on businesses and changes to a counter-espionage law.
“I was very clear, direct and firm in all of my conversations with my Chinese counterparts,” she told CNN. “I didn’t pull any punches. I didn’t sugarcoat anything.”
Raimondo also said that she had brought up to Chinese officials that her email was hacked in advance of her late August trip to China.
“They suggested that they didn’t know about it and they suggested that it wasn’t intentional,” she told CNN. “But I think it was important that I put it on the table and let them know and let them know that it’s hard to build trust when you have actions like that.”