Clean-energy exports to China not affected by controls

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. does not maintain controls on clean energy exports, a senior American trade envoy said recently, while addressing Chinese concerns over billions of dollars in potential trade.

"No clean energy exports are affected by export controls," U.S. Commerce Assistant Secretary David Bohigian said in Beijing at the start of a clean energy and environment trade mission to Asia.

He said Chinese officials told him earlier this year that $10 billion worth of clean energy exports from U.S. companies to the China market were affected by American export controls. In reaction, he asked the Bureau of Industry and Security, the commerce department's unit in charge of controls of sensitive items, to investigate if there were any clean export controls affecting China. "They could find no examples of exports of clean energy technology that were affected by exports controls," he said.

"I'm glad to have the opportunity today to address the difference between the perception and the reality. We encourage Chinese firms and U.S. firms to work together for the peaceful deployment of clean energy technologies."

U.S. complaints about Beijing's large trade surplus is often countered by Chinese claims that the surplus could be smaller if only the Americans would allow more high-technology exports.

Bohigian's tour of China and India is the government's third such mission since April 2007 to the fast-growing Asian powerhouses.

He is accompanied by 19 U.S. companies specializing in clean energy and environmental technologies, including GE Energy, Rockwell Automation, 3 Tier, Synergics Energy Services and Vista International.

According to the U.S. government, the clean technology market in China will increase to $186 billion in 2010 and to $555 billion in 2020.

India, with its abundance of renewable energy resources, could also become one of the largest renewable energy markets in the world, it said.