US raises commercial and market access issues with China in meeting

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Thursday raised commercial and market access issues impacting American companies in a meeting with Chinese officials on Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department said, with cross-border data flows and regulatory transparency among topics discussed.

Washington has raised concerns with Beijing for years over restricted access to the Chinese market for U.S. companies.

Thursday's meeting, the first between a commercial issues working group that was formed last year, was led by the U.S. under secretary of commerce for international trade, Marisa Lago, and Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen.

Lago "also raised strong concerns regarding growing overcapacity in a range of Chinese industrial sectors that impact U.S. workers and businesses," the Commerce Department said in a statement.

U.S. and Chinese officials have kept lines of communication open in recent months. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a call on Tuesday, their first direct talks since a meeting in November.

Xi and Biden in the call discussed U.S. efforts to block certain U.S. technologies, including advanced semiconductors, from export to China. Xi had warned Biden that the U.S. is "not de-risking but creating risks" by suppressing China's trade and technology development and adding new entities to U.S. sanctions lists.

The White House said Biden raised concerns with Xi about what Washington described as China's "unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices."

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler)