Excerpt: The Obama administration and the U.S. Congress should promote a more strategic U.S. trade policy toward China that would take aim at improving the competitiveness of U.S. exports vis-a-vis third-country competitors in the Chinese market while simultaneously tackling Chinese market-access barriers, intellectual property violations and discriminatory industrial policies, a delegation of China-based U.S. trade associations told members of Congress this week. Such policies would include fully funding the Obama administration’s National Export Initiative (NEI), getting President Obama to lead a trade mission to China, and devoting more personnel and resources to bolstering the China offices of U.S. economic agencies, according to representatives from the American Chambers of Commerce in Shanghai and Beijing. The delegation featured representatives from the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, the Beijing-based American Chamber of Commerce-People’s Republic of China (AmCham-China), and the American Chamber of Commerce in Southwest China. They highlighted the messages they delivered to lawmakers and U.S. officials while visiting Washington, DC this week during a Sept. 27 lunch with reporters hosted by the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) (see separate story).
