According to the US, Washington and Beijing want to continue discussing overcapacity in the dispute over cheap products from China on foreign markets. “I am particularly concerned about the impact of Chinese industrial overcapacity in certain sectors as a result of government support,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in Guangzhou, southern China, according to the statement.
Discussions about balanced economic growth, like the one Yellen held with China’s Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng in the export metropolis, are important to protect American interests and promote a healthy economic relationship with China.
According to Chinese sources, he addressed Beijing’s “serious concerns” about US economic and trade policy measures that restrict China. As the world’s largest economy, the USA is particularly concerned about Chinese exports of cheap green energy products.
Yellen gave the example of a US solar company that, according to her, had to close because it could not keep up with Chinese competitors’ products at “artificially depressed prices.” “It’s important that something like this doesn’t happen again,” said the 77-year-old.
Similar case in Germany
According to Yellen, the USA shares these concerns with its allies. German politicians are also currently discussing the influence of cheap products from China after the Swiss solar company Meyer Burger closed its factory in Freiberg, Saxony. The company cited competition from cheaper products from the Far East as one of the reasons for this.
The day before, Yellen had already drawn attention to the danger posed by China’s overcapacity, which was met with criticism in China’s state media. A commentary by the state news agency Xinhua, which is considered the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, called it “anti-China.”
The accusation is that hyping up overcapacity in the clean energy sector is serving as a pretext for the US to introduce protectionist measures to protect US companies. The fact that China is disrupting global prices is an “unfounded claim.”