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BEIJING – A US company shipping cherries to a coastal province in southeastern China recently encountered a new border problem: customs officers ordered quarantining for a week, and were sent back to United States.
Meanwhile, US pet food manufacturers say they face harsher inspections at ports, delaying the arrival of goods on the shelves and ultimately hurt sales.
And a US manufacturer that exports vehicles to China has recorded a 98% jump in random inspections at the border over the past month, which has delayed the company.
US business leaders fear that it is the "qualitative measures" that China has warned it would trigger if President Trump imposed tariffs on his exports to the United States.
Just days before the first 25% tax reaches $ 34 billion worth of Chinese goods, US companies already claim to be feeling the problem in the form of approvals for blocked products, visas workers and license applications.
In a country where the application of the regulations can vary considerably from one region to another, it is difficult for analysts to know if these sudden administrative headaches are only a result. A coincidence or if the Chinese government threatens to make life harder for Americans. But the anecdotal evidence suggesting official sanction is construction, according to seasoned observers of the Chinese market.
"There is enough trend to say that this could be related," said Jake Parker, vice president of China's operations at the China-US Business Council, which represents about 200 companies, including Pepsi, Apple and General Motors. "Fees will not solve the problem, but they will hurt US interests."
Leaders from all industries have expressed concern over an increasingly hostile regulatory environment, he said. (The companies wanted to remain anonymous so as not to irritate the government.)
They also fear that the war between Washington and Beijing will feed an anti-American sentiment among Chinese consumers.
A sign of frayed relations: a notice issued by the Chinese Embassy in Washington last week, urging tourists to "avoid going out alone at night" in the United States, where "shootings, theft and the flights are frequent. [19659011] The White House has not responded to requests for comment.
According to the American Chamber of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, many US companies invest more than $ 220 billion in China, while many of them are struggling to serve the middle class that explodes. Chinese President Xi Jinping invoked this financial pledge at a meeting with US and European leaders in June, telling the room: "We are fighting back," according to a person familiar with the discussion.
Last Friday, AmCham China, which represents about 900 companies here, convened a private meeting in a Beijing hotel to discuss the impacts of ongoing negotiations.
It lasted three hours, said AmCham China president Alan Beebe, and many leaders wondered, "Am I singled out?"
Some feared the possibility of unusually heavy fire inspections, he said. Others wondered if environmental regulations could become stricter.
"It's a common concern for our members that these measures can be used as a form of retaliation," Beebe said. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued a statement in June that described Trump's commercial tactics as "blackmail" and promised to respond "quantitatively and qualitatively".
Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Commerce, said at a press conference in Beijing last week that China had not stepped up its regulations to discourage US imports.
The first round of US tariffs on Chinese products worth $ 34 billion is expected to come into effect on July 6, and China is committed to putting pressure on an equal number of US exports.
Trump has threatened to impose new taxes on products up to $ 416 billion in the coming months if China does not meet its trade requirements. (The president accused the country of committing one of the "biggest thefts in the history of the world.")
China can not match Trump on tariffs – it has imported 130 billion dollars United States merchandise last year. According to analysts' analysis, last year, for example, after the South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group provided land outside Seoul to the US military for a system missiles, the Chinese authorities have closed their doors. Chinese public media also called for a boycott of Lotte products.
The government can turn this muscle on American companies, said James McGregor, president of the Greater China region. For the consulting firm APCO Worldwide
"They can use all the bureaucratic means to make life difficult for companies"
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Luna Lin in Beijing contributed to this story.
To find out more:
Official Trump seeks sanctions for Chinese leaders on human rights issues
"Stand in your belly …" Legs together ": a Chinese college teaches students to to be "perfect"
With tariffs, Trump begins to unravel a quarter century of Sino-US economic relations
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