Wyden’s 2010 Report Shows U.S. Green Goods Trade Deficit with China at Record Level
Washington, D.C. – As the Obama Administration continues high level trade talks with the government of China today, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) released a report examining the impact China’s aggressive and potentially anti-competitive industrial policies are having on the global green goods industry. The U.S. trade deficit in green goods with China reached a record level in 2010, according to the report – the third in a series of reports examining trade in green goods – despite the highest U.S. exports in five years.
Chinese and U.S. trade officials met this week to discuss trade in clean energy technology as part of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) talks currently taking place in Washington, D.C.
“It has become clear to me that China’s aggressive and targeted industrial policies are giving its producers and exporters of green goods an unfair leg up on the competition, so much so that our green good trade deficit with China grew even while our overall trade deficit in these products shrank,” Wyden said, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee in International Trade. “Even in a good year, American workers and producers in Europe and Japan are falling prey to what appear to be unfair practices employed by China. A unified approach is needed to combat these challenges and I urge Ambassador Kirk and Secretary Locke to make clear to China that the U.S. places a high premium on a fair market for green goods.”
The report shows that the U.S. trade deficit with China in green goods grew by almost 60 percent, to $954 million in 2010, even as the U.S. green goods trade deficit with other countries shrank. The report also shows that the U.S. exported more green goods in 2010 than at any time in the previous five years. Despite this growth, U.S. exporters continue to lose market share to the Chinese in the biggest and fastest growing markets.
The report also details potential opportunities to expand U.S. exports of green goods to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The JCCT was established in 1983 as a forum for high-level dialogue on bilateral trade issues. It is chaired on the U.S. side by Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk and on the Chinese side by Vice Premier Wang Qishan.
To read the latest report, please click here.
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