China is eliminating a complex web of subsidies the country has been using to boost its exports of agricultural, medical, textile and other goods, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced Thursday.
“Today we have signed an agreement with China to eliminate export subsidies that the United States challenged because they are prohibited under WTO rules,” Froman said in a press conference, flanked by four House members.
USTR officials said they calculated that China has spent about $1 billion over the past three years, providing free or discounted services to industrial centers that specialize in exporting and that put U.S. producers and exporters at a disadvantage in the global market.
But the U.S. win went further than just stopping Chinese export subsidies, Froman said. It shows that the U.S. is capable of enforcing trade rules and provides an example of how the U.S. will make sure that foreign trade partners live up to promises in the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership, he explained.
Froman and other Obama administration officials are lobbying lawmakers to approve the TPP this year, a deal the American Farm Bureau Federation says will increase net farm income by $4.4 billion annually.
