Secretary's Speech

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez Transcript of Media Availability Following Shanghai American Chamber of Commerce Remarks
Shanghai, China

Secretary Gutierrez: I believe you were all in the speech inside, so we'll open it up for questions.

Q: John Liu, Bloomberg News: Mr. Secretary, You were talking about raising/increasing American exports to China. How big of a role is re-evaluating the yuan going to play in helping to increase those exports? And did you talk to your counterparts in the Chinese government about the yuan?

A: Actually, I did not. We normally keep the currency as part of the Treasury Secretary's accountability purview. That way you don't have different departments talking about currency and confusing the market. So I didn't talk about it there and I don't plan to talk about it here. (Laughter)

Q: China Business Network: Citigroup now is trying to acquire the majority stake in Guangdong Development Bank, a local Chinese bank, and a serious competitor is an international bank from France. So my question is: Do you believe that Citi's acquisition is another important way to increase the presence of U.S. companies here?

A: Well, without getting into a specific transaction that's taking place in the marketplace, and obviously Citi will be the company to answer that question. But we have pressed for, and requested, more opening in the financial services market. As you know, there are restrictions, there are ownership restrictions, there are capitalization requirements for every branch that you open and we think that's an area that should be open. It's a great example of market access and it's also a great example of how we can increase our services business.

Q: Kenji Kawase, Nikkei: I want to ask you about-- this is not in the realm of your role as Commerce Secretary--the relationship between the U.S. and China in terms of trade is increasing, but what about in the realm of, for instance, human rights or all these other cases that all involve the whole of the U.S.-China relationship? Have you had any discussion on that? What's on your mind when you see the trade relationship expanding with China, but in the realm of human rights, kind of lagging behind? Thank you.

A: This is something which, as you know, is a topic of a lot of interest in the U.S. and many of our members of Congress and certain agencies think of the relationship a lot broader than just in commercial terms. In my role as Commerce Department, I focus on the commercial side, I focus on the business side, but that isn't to say that there isn't a great deal of interest in seeing China's approach toward human freedoms to evolve as much as their commercial and their business and their economic environment is doing.

Q: Wall Street Journal: Welcome to Shanghai, Secretary Gutierrez. As we know, you are coming here pushing the Chinese government to give more room for foreign investment, especially for American companies. We want to know specifically your opinion on the stance of China's reluctance to allow foreign companies to buy Chinese companies.

A: It's all part of, as we say, to continue to open up the marketplace. We see in countries around the world, that there is a reluctance to give up what they may consider state-owned enterprises or businesses that should be in the hands of the state. But, we've also seen that over time, as an economy grows and as an economy develops, that governments realize that it really isn't that important for certain sectors to be in the hands of the state. And that the whole notion of strategic sectors doesn't necessarily mean that the state has to be the main owner. So, we would hope that over time China will also evolve the way that we've seen many other markets do so.

Q: Laurie Underwood, American Chamber of Commerce: Upstairs you mentioned that the way to address the trade imbalance is to promote exports and one mission that you have here on this trip is to talk about market access. Could you elaborate on that a little bit more? Are there specific areas that you're trying to open up to American companies?

A: Sure. There are several areas that we talked about at the JCCT where we believe it's important and that are examples of market access. One example is motion pictures. There is a limit on the number of motion pictures that can be imported in China to be distributed in cinemas. We'd like to see the amount increase but, actually we'd like to see it just disappear and just not have a limit to the number of motion pictures in the country. The financial services example is another market access example. We've had discussions on beef and we've had some agreements on beef but we believe that we should go beyond where we are today on beef as a market access issue. There are capitalization requirements for telecom companies which are so high that they almost become a barrier to entry. So those are three or four examples, but there are . . . Retail sales, you can come in but you need permits for every single store that you want to open afterwards. That in itself becomes a bit of a market access barrier because you have to go through these regulations and these procedures. Medical devices, the testing requirements are very onerous. We actually go through two or three types of testing requirements. We're pressing for doing one test and harmonizing the test. That would enable more market access. So those are a few examples.

Q: Goh Sin Hwee, Singapore Lian He Zao Bao: In your talk with Wen Jiabao and Bo Xilai, did the Chinese express their concern about the new Congress attitude about trade policies? In Shanghai, is there any specific issue that you'd like to address here? Thank you.

A: Thank you. I would say that the very impressive comments that we heard from the Premier, as well as the Vice Premier, is the agreement that the way to narrow the trade deficit is by allowing the U.S. to export more and that we have to work together to avoid that the solution become import less from China. And that's what we talked about in the context of today's environment and we've talked about it in the past as well, but it's very relevant today.

Q: Benjamin Morgan, AFP: Hello Secretary, I just want to ask you if auto parts were brought up in any of your discussions in Beijing with regards to the WTO? Thanks.

A: They were not. Auto parts are in the process and they are now part of the WTO process and they'll follow their course. I believe that the next step is some discussions in Geneva. So that's following a process and we've sort of turned it over to the WTO process and it did not come up in our discussions.

Thank you.