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Associated Press, Reuters, Beijing, Washington
The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday fleshed out proposed rules to restrict and monitor U.S. investment in China in artificial intelligence (AI), computer chips and quantum computing, while the German economy minister said yesterday during a visit to China that the EU is open to talks on tariffs on Chinese exports.
Washington’s proposed rules stem from an executive order issued by U.S. President Joe Biden last August on “countries of concern” access to U.S. dollars to fund advanced technologies that the U.S. government says will bolster military, intelligence, surveillance and cyber capabilities. The order listed China, Hong Kong and Macau as countries of concern.
The proposed rules outline the mandatory information that U.S. citizens and permanent residents must provide when conducting transactions in the region, and what would be considered a violation of the restrictions.
Photo: Reuters
A senior Treasury official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the rules, said they would specifically ban U.S. investors from funding Chinese AI systems that could be used for military applications such as weapons targeting, combat and location tracking.
The Treasury Department is seeking comments on the proposal until Aug. 4, after which it plans to issue a final rule.
German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Change Robert Harbeck told Chinese officials in Beijing yesterday that proposed EU rules on Chinese products were not “punitive”.
Harbeck’s visit to China will be the first by a senior European official since the EU proposed imposing heavy tariffs on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) to counter what it sees as excessive subsidies.
“It’s important to understand that these are not punitive tariffs,” Habeck said during the first plenary session of the Climate and Transformation Dialogue.
He said countries like the United States, Brazil and Turkey had imposed punitive tariffs, but the EU had not. “Europe does things differently.”
Harbeck said the European Commission had been conducting a detailed investigation over the course of nine months into whether Chinese companies had unfairly benefited from subsidies.
“Common and equal standards regarding market access should be achieved,” Habeck said.
Meeting with Zheng Shanjie, chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Harbeck said the EU’s tariff proposals were aimed at levelling the playing field with China.
“We will do everything in our power to protect Chinese companies,” Zheng said.
He added that the EU’s proposed import tariffs on Chinese-made EVs would hit both sides.
After his meeting with Zheng, Habeck also met with China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, who said he would discuss tariffs with EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis by video conference last night.
“What I said to our Chinese partners today is that the door is open for talks, and I hope that message has been heard,” Habeck said later in Shanghai. “This opens the stage where negotiations are possible, where talks are important, where dialogue is necessary.”
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