Joint Statement
- Time：2013-06-05
Fourth Annual U.S.-China CEO and Former Senior Officials’ Dialogue
China Center for International Economic Exchanges
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Introduction
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the China Center for International Economic Exchanges co-hosted the 4th U.S.-China CEO and Former Senior Officials’ Dialogue from June 4th to 5th, 2013 in Beijing. The American and Chinese representatives reviewed the achievements of the previous Dialogues and held in-depth discussions on ways to promote deeper trade and investment relations between the two countries.
In addition to a consensus on issues in the bilateral economic agenda as presented below, the participants in the dialogue respectfully called on both governments to take steps to deepen cooperation, strengthen strategic trust across the range of their bilateral, regional and global interactions, and build a new type of relationship between major countries based on mutual respect and mutual benefit. While participants believe that elements of healthy competition will always exist in the U.S.-China relationship alongside cooperation, the participants rejected the views of those in each country that see the future as inevitably adversarial. Indeed, the participants see great opportunity and necessity for these two great nations to cooperate and collaborate on a range of pressing economic and social issues.
With regard to the economic and commercial issues, the participants expressed a range of views, including substantial differences on some key items. However, consistent with the consensus reached in the previous Dialogue sessions, the participants identified areas of agreement and concrete steps their governments could take to advance bilateral economic relations on a mutually beneficial basis.
Participants expressed their strong support for the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue (S&ED) and the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). Participants agreed that the S&ED focus on a limited number of the most pressing economic and strategic issues in the bilateral relationship, while calling upon the JCCT to broaden and deepen its focus on resolving issues of importance to the two business communities.
The sections below represent the positive outcomes of Fourth U.S.-China CEO and Former Senior Officials’ Dialogue.
Ⅰ Economic Restructuring
Participants agreed that economic restructuring in China and the United States, the two largest economies in the world, is in the interests of both countries and the world. How the two countries manage common challenges such as coping with an aging society, promoting healthy capital markets, managing medium-term fiscal risks and sustaining competitiveness will be key to the healthy, steady and sustained development of both economies, and crucial to the stable recovery of the world economy.
Participants noted that in the past few years the Chinese and American economies were moving toward a more balanced direction. In the future, the United States will focus on expanding exports and revitalizing manufacturing in its restructuring effort, while China will give priority to expanding domestic demand and developing its services industry. These measures will help both countries to further balance their economies, lift the standard of living of our citizens, and create tremendous new business opportunities for Chinese and American companies.
Ⅱ Mutual Goal: Free and Open Trade and Investment
The participants noted that economic reform, openness, and competition have had a positive impact on growth, job creation, and innovation in both countries. They endorsed the view that they and their governments should support the development of free and open trade and investment on a bilateral, multilateral, and regional basis to the maximum extent possible. Participants noted that pursuing such a path, especially at a time of global economic difficulties, requires strong leadership from enterprises and governments. Participants pledged to actively support such efforts through their own actions and through recommendations to their governments as described below.
⒈ Trade
The participants noted that since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, bilateral trade has expanded dramatically to the benefit of both countries. However, the participants agreed that many obstacles remain to realizing the full potential of the bilateral trade relationship. The participants agreed that both countries should set as their goals (1) the development of rules-based, free and open trade based on mutual respect, mutual benefit, equality and openness, and (2) increasing support for multilateral and regional institutions that advance the same objective. To this end, the participants endorsed the following views:
ⅰ Bilateral
· Participants agreed on the need for the two governments to develop a more ambitious agenda to promote two-way trade and investment liberalization. There was a consensus view that further coordinated efforts by both organizations were needed to study the economic benefits and potential costs to each side of a free bilateral trade agreement. Both sides expressed willingness to conduct additional research on this topic under the Dialogue mechanism and to share the results with their governments.
· Participants highlighted their shared commitment to expanding bilateral trade through building a more open global trading system, resisting trade protectionism, and reducing non-tariff barriers.
· Participants called upon both governments to make renewed efforts to prevent the abuse of trade remedy investigations.
· Participants agreed that both governments should take efforts to remove unreasonable restrictions on exports of high-tech products.
· Participants agreed to advocate for closer commercial cooperation the areas of energy and environmental protection, and to work to facilitate trade in LNG.
ⅱ Multilateral
· Participants expressed firm support for the World Trade Organization’s commitment to improving the global rules-based trading system, and called upon their governments to enhance cooperation to strengthen the system and promote concrete outcomes that will boost trade and living standards in the two economies and around the world.
· Participants agreed that they share a priority to finalize a balanced Doha Round Early Harvest Agreement that covers trade facilitation, agriculture, and development as a key deliverable at the upcoming WTO Ministerial in Bali. Participants agreed such an agreement would provide a solid foundation for the completion of the Doha Round.
· Participants expressed support for ongoing efforts to negotiate an expansion of the product coverage of the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA), noting that the ITA has proven to be one of the most commercially successful trade agreements in the WTO by making the newest technologies more affordable and available around the world.
· Participants recognized the potential of the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) to spur new trade flows and accelerate economic growth. They agreed to continue to discuss the TISA at future meetings of the Dialogue.
ⅲ Regional
· Participants noted that in the absence of comprehensive trade liberalization under the WTO, it is important that both governments continue to negotiate agreements that eliminate barriers to trade and investment, and uphold the rules governing international commerce. Participants agreed that free trade agreements should adopt an open architecture-approach.
· U.S. participants voiced support for China’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations under the same terms and conditions as the other TPP participants.
· Chinese participants expressed support for the United States and other economies joining a future Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement following the conclusion of negotiations between ASEAN and its FTA partners.
· Participants agreed that the TPP and RCEP negotiations are complementary and have the potential to increase trade and investment, eliminate various trade, investment and non-trade barriers, and gradually improve transparency, regulatory, and intellectual property protection and enforcement standards in the region.
· Participants on both sides agreed that the emergence of hundreds of regional trade agreements is a “second best” alternative to the WTO's delivering comprehensive trade liberalization.
⒉ Investment
The participants noted that the dramatic growth of U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) in China since the commencement of China’s reform and opening policies has brought enormous benefits to China and the United States. Chinese foreign direct investment in the United States, though small, is growing rapidly and also has the potential to bring enormous benefits to the United States and China. As in the area of trade, the participants noted that there remain many obstacles to harvesting the full potential of two-way FDI. The participants agreed both countries should set as their goal the development of a stable, free, and open bilateral investment environment. To this end, the participants endorsed the following views:
· The participants agreed that it is in the interests of both economies to expeditiously negotiate and conclude a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) that would result in the maximum removal of restrictions on two-way foreign investment. While participants conceded that they may have differences regarding the scope of a BIT, they agreed to advocate with their governments for the timely conclusion of such an agreement.
· Participants agreed to advocate for their governments to reduce significantly inbound FDI review and approval procedures and ensure that such procedures are applied equally to foreign and domestic companies.
· They also agreed that both governments should conduct national security and antitrust reviews with increased transparency and efficiency and to work to ensure that broader political factors do not impact consideration of inbound FDI from the other country under each country’s FDI review process.
· Participants agreed to advocate for their governments to support Chinese and American businesses’ cooperation on trade and investment in each other’s market.
⒊ Market Competition
Participants noted that government policies, practices, and decisions that impact commercial activities should be made, to the maximum extent possible, on an equal basis with regard to the nature of ownership of the company in question, e.g. government-owned vs. private, and the nationality of the company. Participants agreed to advocate with their governments against the politicization of trade and investment. They further agreed that privately-owned, state-owned and state-invested enterprises should receive equal treatment and that each of their governments should not discriminate against companies from other countries based on nationality.
⒋ Innovation
Participants noted the critical role that innovation will play in the U.S. and Chinese economies in the coming decades. They further noted that in the 21st century, innovation is increasingly a global, networked effort. They noted that promoting innovation is a high priority for enterprises and governments in both countries.
Participants agreed that both governments should adopt proactive policies and measures to encourage market-driven innovation and strengthen protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights.
Dialogue participants agreed to further explore common approaches to stem the rising trend of forced localization, coerced technology transfer, and unreasonably restrictive technology transfer policies around the world, including at the WTO and other multilateral institutions, and to make recommendations to their respective governments toward this end.
Participants agreed that though there is an important role for governments in promoting innovation, especially through funding of basic research, history has shown that the market-driven, open, and competition-based model of innovation is the most efficient and successful.
Participants agreed to oppose efforts to promote innovation through government policies or actions that discriminate against companies of the other country based on nationality.
In addition, participants voiced their strong support for the announcement by the two governments in April 2013 to establish a new working group on cybersecurity challenges and to present its findings at the July meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington, DC.
Ⅲ Next Steps
· Participants agreed to provide their respective governments with a copy of this joint statement and a summary of the Dialogue discussions.
· Participants agreed to share the feedback they receive from their respective governments on the outcomes document via an enhanced information sharing mechanism. Participants agreed to increase exchanges on the state of the two economies, opportunities for cooperation, and ongoing challenges in the economic relationship in advance of the fifth Dialogue meeting.
· Participants agreed to hold the fifth meeting of the U.S.-China CEO and Former Senior Officials Dialogue this October in Washington.
· Participants agreed to complete their research findings by the October Dialogue meeting on (1) relevant issues relating to a potential U.S.-China free trade agreement, and (2) the benefits and challenges for two-way investment in the U.S. and Chinese infrastructure markets.
· Participants agreed to convene a high-level forum on two-way investment in the United States immediately before or after the fifth meeting of the U.S.-China CEO Dialogue in Washington.