2023-09-03 17:35:38
© Reuters. US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo during a press conference in Shanghai, China 8/30/2023 REUTERS/Aly Song
By Diane Bartz and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned China in interviews broadcast on Sunday that the patience of U.S. companies was “wearing thin,” saying U.S. companies deserve a “predictable and a level playing field”.
The world’s two largest economies used to be each other’s biggest trading partners, but Washington now trades more with neighbors Canada and Mexico, while Beijing trades more with Southeast Asia.
Recently, when in China, Raimondo said there was a strong appetite among US companies for the relationship to work and that while some actions by the Chinese government were positive, the situation there needed to live up to the rhetoric.
“China is making things difficult,” Raimondo told CBS’s Face the Nation, according to a transcript. “I was very clear with China that we need — patience is wearing thin among American companies. They need and deserve a predictable environment and a level playing field. And we hope China hears that message so that we can have a stable business relationship and growing.”
Raimondo said US companies faced new challenges, including large unexplained fines, company raids and changes to a counter-espionage law.
“I was very clear, direct and firm in all my conversations with my Chinese colleagues,” she told CNN. “I didn’t deliver any coup de grâce. I didn’t sweeten anything.” Raimondo also said he had informed Chinese authorities that his email had been hacked prior to his trip to China in late August.
“They suggested they didn’t know about it and it wasn’t intentional,” she told CNN. “But I think it was important that I put that on the table and let them know and let them know that it’s hard to build trust when you have actions like that.”
China is grappling with a slowdown that has roiled global markets, with the spotlight now firmly on developer Country Garden’s troubled debt crisis spiraling into a sector that contributes around a quarter of the economy.
“I think there’s no doubt that (China’s economy) is slowing down. And certainly they’re facing real and significant challenges in real estate,” she told Face the Nation.
Raimondo said China’s economy did better when it was more transparent and market-oriented.
“As they’ve closed down and become more arbitrary in how they manage regulations, the economy is facing big challenges,” she said.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz and Phil Stewart)
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