US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day trade-tariff truce, due to expire on March 1 (FRED DUFOUR)

Beijing (AFP) – Chinese bank regulators approved the registration of S&P Global’s Chinese entity on Monday, giving the US tech firm access to the country’s credit rating market, as the China-US trade war grinds on.

The People’s Bank of China — China’s central bank — said S&P Global’s Beijing-based subsidiary has successfully registered and has received the green light to conduct bond rating in China’s interbank bond market.

“As a next step, the People’s Bank of China will… support even more foreign credit rating organisations that conform to regulations and have international influence to enter the Chinese market,” the bank said in a statement.

Opening up China’s credit rating industry is “an important part” of steadily growing China’s financial market, it said.

S&P Global’s entry into China comes as Beijing and Washington are locked in a bruising trade war that has spooked markets worldwide.

Since last year, the world’s two largest economies have exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs on more than $360 billion in two-way trade.

Last month, US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day truce on trade tariffs, which is due to expire on March 1.

This week, Beijing’s trade envoy, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, will lead a delegation of Chinese officials to Washington, as both sides hope to move toward a bargain to end the trade war.

Barriers to accessing Chinese financial markets, the alleged theft of American technological know-how and the trade deficit are among the thorny issues that are part of the ongoing US-China trade spat.

China pledged in late 2017 to allow overseas financial firms greater access to the world’s second-largest economy.

In April 2018, Chinese regulators started allowing overseas firms to apply for majority stakes in securities and mutual-fund management ventures, and promised to permit full control in three years.

Draft rules to allow foreign companies to hold controlling stakes in insurance firms were published in May.

Swiss giant UBS AG became the first foreign bank to gain control of its local securities joint venture last November after the easing of restrictions. 

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