US high-tech export 'in right direction' By Dai Yan (China Daily) Updated: 2006-07-08 05:07
The United States is moving in the right direction by boosting high-tech
exports to China, but the benefits do not seem as great as the US had claimed,
Chinese trade analysts said on Friday.
Their reaction comes after the US Government published preliminary rules on
US export controls to China on its Federal Register on Thursday for public
comments.
The rules, spanning 47 categories of technology goods, deal exclusively with
China.
By revising the export control rules, the US has strengthened its economic
and security interests, said David McCormick, US undersecretary of commerce for
industry and security.
Export controls, a product of the Cold War era, aim to limit the shipment and
sales of goods that could pose national security threats if obtained by certain
countries of concern. Many US technology companies see export controls as
barriers to the Chinese market. Such controls are also believed to have caused a
huge US trade deficit with China.
The revised and enhanced rules are positive for both US exporters and Chinese
users, said Mei Xinyu, a trade expert at the Chinese Academy of International
Trade and Economic Co-operation of the Ministry of Commerce.
"We are still waiting for more technical analysis of the rules. But at least
the new rules are more clear than the vague stipulations of the past," he said.
The Ministry of Commerce has not responded to the preliminary rules.
But Mei said despite Washington's repeated vows to boost high-tech exports to
China through this revision, he did not see many concrete moves.
The new policy will spare US exporters from the need to apply for licences
for sales to Chinese companies in such sectors as semiconductor equipment and
electronics.
Rather than having to obtain licences certifying that
their products comply with the cumbersome demands of US export control
regulations, the US companies would now be allowed to trade freely with any
Chinese companies on a list provided by the US Government.
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