Business groups welcome greater access to
Chinese consumers but express frustration
Beijing is removing market restrictions one at a
time instead of throwing open its economy 18
years after it joined the free-trading World Trade
Organization in 2001.
Many changes are in industries with
entrenched Chinese competitors. Newcomers
face high minimum capital requirements and
other restrictions.
This week’s import fair highlights Beijing’s
emphasis on trade in food and manufactured
goods, an area dominated by Chinese
factories. Its trading partners complain that is
antiquated and too narrow. They want more
access to finance, health care and other service
industries and an end to curbs that block most
foreign purchases of Chinese companies and
other assets.
Opening services, an American strength,
would target “a priority for the U.S. government
— reducing the bilateral trade deficit,” said
Jake Parker, a vice president of the U.S.-China
Business Council, in an email.
Still, American companies were “pleasantly
surprised” by commercial opportunities at
last year’s Import Expo, said Parker. He said
coverage of the event by state television helped
companies to promote themselves.
The Shanghai expo also gives Beijing a
chance to repair its image as a positive force
for development following complaints its
multibillion-dollar “Belt and Road” construction
initiative leaves host countries in Asia and Africa
with too much debt.