TPP, OECD Rules On SOEs Can Impact China Reform Debate, Chamber Says

摘要

The strategy being pursued by the Obama administration to establish common understandings and rules on the commercial behavior of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is "perfectly positioned" to influence the debate over domestic economic reform that is taking place in China and other state-dominated economies, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official. There is an ongoing debate in those nations on how to handle "failing" SOEs that are unprofitable and require ongoing subsidies and other preferences to compete, noted Sean Heather, the Chamber's executive director for global regulatory cooperation, during an April 25 panel on SOEs sponsored by the Global Business Dialogue. "The conversation we are trying to have in the TPP and ... the OECD and any of these fora is perfectly positioned to support that reform conversation that is going to have to happen for these failing SOEs," he said. "Anybody who is operating a failing state-owned enterprise can't afford to fund it forever." According to Heather, there is a growing body of academic work and domestic policy voices in emerging market countries, including China, Vietnam and Malaysia, arguing that those governments cannot afford to prop up SOEs that are failing economically. Heather acknowledged that it will be difficult for emerging market economies like China, Vietnam or Malaysia to surrender state control of "cash cow" SOEs that are successful and generate revenue because they are in highly profitable sectors like oil, gas or telecommunications.