U.S. Issues Tariff `Hit List' in Bid to End China's Import Curbs
The Bush administration yesterday stepped up the pressure on China to end restrictions on U.S. imports, releasing a list of $3.9 billion worth of Chinese-made footwear, silks, luggage, electronics and other products that face retaliatory duties here if barriers to American goods remain in China.</br></br>The 44-page list of Chinese imports that face as much as a doubling of their tariffs was released in Washington after negotiations in Beijing ended with little progress on U.S. demands that China open its markets to American goods.</br></br>The Bush administration is insisting that China end what Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Michael H. Moskow called "a complex web of trade barriers" that keep American products from its markets.</br></br>Among other things, the United States wants China to publish all its laws and regulations on foreign trade, many of which are kept secret, and to eliminate restrictive import bans, quotas and licensing requirements that U.S. officials say have prevented American products from being sold in China.</br></br>This is by far the largest retaliation list the United States has ever published, and although it is likely to be pared down, said Moskow, its final value will be more than $2 billion worth of Chinese goods.