USCIB Testifies on China WTO Compliance

In response to Federal Register notice 82 FR 36071, USCIB Director, Investment, Trade and Financial Services Eva Hampl, provided oral testimony on Wednesday, October 4 to the U.S. government interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) regarding China’s compliance with its WTO commitments on behalf of USCIB and its members.

“USCIB and its members understand and appreciate that U.S.-China economic relations are complex and multifaceted, and American business holds a direct and important stake in this relationship and in its success,” noted Hampl in her testomony.

The testimony amplified priority issues for USCIB members, in addition to the written submission made in September. The Q&A session following the oral statement included questions from the various agencies on issues of regularly transparency, technology transfer, trade secrets, discriminatory industrial policies, and agricultural biotech.

On IT security measures, Hampl emphasized, “The Cybersecurity Law, which went into effect in June of this year, establishes a number of burdensome restrictions on the cross-border flow of data and establishes intrusive security reviews of equipment and services used by network operators and operators of critical information infrastructure.” Hampl therefore urged the U.S. government to continue to press for full suspension of all existing and proposed measures involving trade-restrictive requirements in this area.

In addition to discussing these issues with the interagency committee, Hampl emphasized USCIB’s support of continuing negotiations of a US-China Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), expressing USCIB’s hope that efforts to conclude a high-standard BIT will soon resume on the remaining issues.

Staff Contact:   Alice Slayton Clark

Senior VP, Trade, Investment, and Digital Policy
Tel: 202.682.0051

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