Trump aide calls for action on market access, protectionism and intellectual property protection before US President’s visit to Beijing
China and America will have to address three major stumbling blocks before US President Donald Trump’s visit in November, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said.
In an interview with a small group of reporters in Hong Kong, Ross highlighted the question of better market access, protectionist behaviour and intellectual property rights as the key issues.
Ross said the US trade relationship with China was lopsided and neither side had made concessions during his visit to Beijing this week, but he insisted he was optimistic about resolving trade disputes between the two nations.
Ross met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Vice Premier Wang Yang and Liu He, a key financial and economic adviser to President Xi Jinping, during his visit.
US commerce secretary tells China to guarantee fair treatment for American companies
During the talks, Ross pressed China on the “need to rebalance bilateral trade and investment relations” and urged it to take “meaningful action” on trade issues.
The two nations came up with a 100-day action plan to tackle their trade disputes following the first meeting between Xi and Trump in April.
But Ross said many sectors had not been addressed in the plan, and both sides “are looking at bigger things and more difficult things than what we had in the first 100 days”.
“The most important thing is better market access, both for companies operating there physically and for companies exploring there.
