WASHINGTON – Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Josette Sheeran Shiner will lead a high-level trade enforcement team to Beijing on May 24-26 to press for swift implementation of recent commitments on intellectual property rights, industrial policies, services and agriculture.  Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi made those commitments at the April 21 U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT).  The JCCT is chaired by Vice Premier Wu, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick. 

“At this year’s JCCT, we achieved concrete results on key U.S. trade concerns, and China is beginning to follow through,” Ambassador Shiner said.  “We will continue to hold China to its word on JCCT commitments and explore opportunities for further progress in these areas and across the trade agenda.  Our goal remains to ensure a level playing field for U.S. manufacturers, service providers, farmers and workers and to ensure U.S.-China trade is a two-way street.” 

Since the April JCCT meeting in Washington, China has launched a nationwide crackdown on counterfeiting and piracy, strengthened customs enforcement against the import and export of fake goods, suspended implementation of a mandatory WiFi encryption standard that would have disadvantaged American information technology firms, and further opened its market to U.S. insurance providers by lowering burdensome capitalization requirements. 

While in Beijing, Ambassador Shiner will also discuss China’s plans to update its national pharmaceutical formulary.  At a meeting with USTR Zoellick last month, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai pledged that China would update the formulary, which controls access to medicines for China’s nearly 1.3 billion people and currently contains no drugs produced after 1998.  Shiner will also press for greater market access for U.S. films.  Last week, China announced plans to suspend imports of foreign movies for the month of July.  

“Greater access to innovative American medicines would mean better care and quality of life for China’s aging population,” Ambassador Shiner said.  “And an open market for legitimate medicines and films will give Chinese consumers more choices and a safe and ready alternative to counterfeit and pirated goods.”

This will be Ambassador Shiner’s fifth trip to Beijing on trade enforcement since her confirmation by the U.S. Senate in August 2003.  Acting Assistant USTR for China Charles Freeman and Assistant USTR for Services, Investment and Intellectual Property Rights Jim Mendenhall will accompany her. 

Additional information on China’s JCCT commitments is available on the USTR web site (www.ustr.gov).