Frustration is growing in the United States over issues such as the burgeoning trade deficit with China and the mainland's weak protection of intellectual property, a senior American trade official said yesterday.
"Support for the bilateral trade relationship is being challenged as never before," said Deputy US Trade Representative Karan Bhatia, who is visiting the mainland on the last stop of a five-nation tour of Asia.
Mr Bhatia cited America's trade deficit with China, which reached US$200 billion last year based on US figures, calling it "the greatest deficit in the history of the world".
"There is a substantial, substantial trade deficit that the United States has with China. The issue, from the US perspective, is the ability to compete fairly in the Chinese marketplace," he said after speaking at the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade.
Although Mr Bhatia praised China's commitment to meeting pledges made when it entered the World Trade Organisation four years ago, he said Beijing needed to do more. Washington was concerned about access for US companies to markets for technology and services, Mr Bhatia said.
Mr Bhatia raised the issue of intellectual property rights protection several times.
"Having a weak IPR environment is something that really is a trade barrier for us. It prevents US companies from feeling confident in trading and investing in China," he said.
Mr Bhatia declined to say whether the US might take China to the WTO over piracy, but said Washington reserved the right to use the trading body to address issues that could not be solved bilaterally.
"Where we believe we have a strong WTO case, the United States has made clear it will use dispute resolution mechanisms to try and resolve those problems," he said.
The University of Michigan's Kenneth Lieberthal, a former US National Security Council official, said earlier this month there was a "very real possibility" that the US and others could lodge a case with the WTO over China's IPR enforcement or other issues.
Mr Bhatia's final stop is Beijing.South China Morning Post
