U.S.-China Trade: Detailed Lists of Commitments in Key Bilateral Dialogues (GAO-14-224SP, February 2014), an E-supplement to GAO-14-102
Highlights
This is an E-supplement to GAO-14-102. GAO was asked to prepare an inventory of specific bilateral trade measures that China made as part of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) and the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED). This e-supplement presents an inventory of China's trade commitments that we identified and categorized in the bilateral dialogues of the JCCT and the S&ED. In addition to the commitment text, information provided for each commitment includes (1) issue area categorization; and (2) whether a deadline is specified in the commitment. This inventory is the basis for commitment information presented in our full report. Use the link above to view the full report, which includes a more detailed discussion of our methodology.
Supplemental Material
Background
GAO was asked to prepare an inventory of specific bilateral trade measures that China made as part of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) and the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED). This e-supplement presents an inventory of China's trade commitments that we identified and categorized in the bilateral dialogues of the JCCT and the S&ED. In addition to the commitment text, information provided for each commitment includes (1) issue area categorization; and (2) whether a deadline is specified in the commitment. This inventory is the basis for commitment information presented in our full report. Use the link above to view the full report, which includes a more detailed discussion of our methodology.
The inventory of commitments and issue area categorization for the JCCT and S&ED can be accessed from the two links below.
To identify and analyze these commitments, we interviewed knowledgeable U.S. government officials from the Department of Commerce (Commerce), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the Departments of the Treasury (Treasury), State (State), and Agriculture (USDA) as well as the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in Washington, D.C., and in Beijing, China (via videoconference). We also interviewed representatives of trade associations and research organizations.
According to senior Commerce, USTR, and Treasury officials, the commitments presented in the fact sheets are the official commitments negotiated with the Chinese government. We analyzed and compiled these commitments as presented in this supplement. We conducted a detailed review of the fact sheets issued at the conclusion of annual meetings at the JCCT from 2004 through 2012, the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) from 2006 through 2008, and the S&ED from 2009 through 2013. (In the SED, which preceded the S&ED, the two governments discussed the most important economic, but not political, issues in the bilateral relationship.) For the S&ED, we limited our analysis to China's commitments in the trade and investment pillar of the dialogue's economic track. In our inventory, the "S&ED commitments" include trade and investment commitments China made in the S&ED in 2009 through 2013 and its predecessor, SED, in 2007 and 2008.
We separated the fact sheet text describing steps taken by China into individual commitments and systematically analyzed individual commitments using a structured review process. The fact sheets state China's commitments, U.S. commitments, and joint U.S.-China commitments. We excluded fact sheet text stating U.S. commitments, but included statements about commitments made jointly by the United States and China and by China alone.
We identified 11 issue areas to characterize the content of each commitment. Because many commitments covered multiple issue areas, we assigned up to 3 issue areas to each commitment. We also identified some commitments that did not fit any of the 11 issue areas and categorized these commitments as "other." We discussed this methodology with officials from Commerce, USTR, Treasury, State, and USDA.
The issue areas are:
Government procurement
High technology trade
Innovation
Intellectual property rights
Investment
Multilateral issues
Open trade principles
Sector-specific issues
Technical and regulatory barriers to trade
Trade remedies
Transparency
Other
We conducted this performance audit from May 2012 to February 2014 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
Click on the links below to view
List of S&ED Trade and Investment Commitments
Abbreviations Used in the Commitments
| 3G | third generation |
| 4G | fourth generation |
| APEC | Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation |
| APECTEL | Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Telecommunications and Information Working Group |
| AQSIQ | State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine |
| CCPIT | China Council for the Promotion of International Trade |
| CFIUS | Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States |
| CNCA | National Certification and Accreditation Administration |
| EDS | express delivery services |
| FTA | free trade agreement |
| G-20 | Group of 20 |
| GPA | Government Procurement Agreement of the World Trade Organization |
| IEC | International Electrotechnical Commission |
| IP | intellectual property |
| IPR | intellectual property rights |
| JCCT | U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade |
| MLPS | Multi-Level Protection Scheme |
| MOF | Ministry of Finance |
| MOFCOM | Ministry of Commerce |
| MOU | memorandum of understanding |
| NEV | new energy vehicle |
| PRC | People's Republic of China |
| RMB | renminbi |
| SCLAO | State Council Legislative Affairs Office |
| S&ED | U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue |
| SED | U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue |
| SEI | strategic emerging industry |
| SFDA | State Food and Drug Administration |
| SME | small and medium-sized enterprise |
| SOE | state-owned enterprise |
| SPB | State Postal Bureau |
| TBT | technical barriers to trade |
| TRIPS | Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights of the World Trade Organization |
| USTR | Office of the U.S. Trade Representative |
| VAT | value-added tax |
| WAPI | WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure |
| WIPO | World Intellectual Property Organization |
| WLAN | wireless local area network |
| WTO | World Trade Organization |
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