Tapping China’s Green Revolution

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U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is hoping to get a piece of China's green revolution for U.S. business.

Locke, in Hangzhou, China, told reporters before a joint trade meeting that he’s hoping China’s ambitious plans to create a greener economy would open that country to U.S. cleantech firms. But that could also be a tough sell, he acknowledged, as China builds its own cleantech industry, especially a solar-panel manufacturing industry that has been so productive it has become a threat to manufacturers in other countries.

“Our objective is to allow American companies to compete," Locke said, according to a Reuters report.

But even as Locke tries to ensure an open Chinese market for U.S. cleantech firms, there are reminders that trade between the countries is also a point of friction. The Commerce Department on Tuesday set preliminary duties on Chinese concrete steel wire strand and steel grating to offset the Chinese government’s subsidies for those materials.

The duties range from 7.53 percent to 12.06 percent for the wire strand and 7.44 percent on steel grating.

Last month, the U.S. imposed a 35 percent tariff on tires from China, and Chinese officials reacted angrily, threatening to impose tariffs of their own on U.S. auto parts and chicken.

So all is not sweetness and light as Locke visits China for the annual meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. But U.S. officials say they have hope the two nations can cooperate when it comes to alternative energy.

China, the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas polluter, has been taking rapid steps to become one of its cleantech leaders.

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