China sets ‘buy Chinese’ targets for state companies against US trade deal
The Chinese government has issued new procurement guidelines for state-owned companies and organisations that require up to 100 per cent local content on over 300 items, setting new obstacles for foreign suppliers.
Document 551, titled “Auditing guidelines for government procurement of imported products”, was issued in May by the Chinese Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, reported Reuters.
The previously unreported 70-page document was sent to Chinese hospitals, companies and other state-owned buyers, setting local content requirements of 25 per cent to 100 per cent for 315 items.
These items included medical equipment, ground-based radar equipment, testing machinery, and optical instruments. Items used for animal husbandry, seismic instruments, and marine, geological and geophysical equipment are also listed in the guidelines.
China’s Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not respond to Reuters’ queries on the issue.
A former US official told Reuters that the document against the US-China trade deal was made in January 2020, as Beijing agreed to buy more medical devices, such as magnetic resonance imaging equipment.
China also violated the agreement not to publish such internal documents when joining the World Trade Organization, the official added.
Doug Barry, a spokesman for the U.S. China Business Council, urged the Biden administration to review trade policies with China and raise concerns during the possible meeting between Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping in October.
In 2020, China imported about $124bn in goods from the US. Most of them were purchased by state-owned and government-associated companies in the agriculture, education, energy, health, and transportation sectors.