Washington: The United States is pressing China to lift restrictions on foreign providers of financial information, a senior US official said.

The official, speaking on condition he not be identified, yesterday said the United States had received a lot of complaints about rules that Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency and domestic regulator of financial information services, issued in September 2006 that precluded foreign companies from directly providing financial information to Chinese clients.

Companies affected by the rules include Reuters Group PLC and Bloomberg. US officials raised the issue again during high-level talks in Beijing in December, the official said.

"He could not confirm a published report the United States was considering legal action against China at the World Trade Organization and referred questions on that issue to the US Trade Representative's office," he added.

 

Source : UNI