U.S. Should Take New Look at Old Export Controls
One sure sign of a rising China is its more assertive stance in bilateral talks with the US. So last year, when US negotiators proposed that China help reduce the bilateral trade imbalance by opening up its markets to US exports, Beijing was ready with a proposal of its own: Well buy more American goods, if you scrap restrictions on high-tech exports. The US Cold War-style mentality, they argued, is the main thing standing in the way of more balanced trade.
Most experts consider the Chinese argument to be overblown. They estimate the annual amount of sales to China blocked by US export controls at US$2-3 billion. (The only hard number comes from a 2009 survey by the American Chambers of Commerce based in Beijing and Shanghai, which tallied US$560 million in actual lost sales). This barely puts a dent in Chinas $252 billion trade gap with the US for
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