SHANGHAI
:
The chairman of drugmaker Roche denounced the recent boom in industrial subsidies by the U.S. and European governments and called them a “waste of money.”
Roche’s Severin Schwan used a visit to Shanghai for a business forum to criticize support that Western nations have increasingly offered to give their manufacturing industries a boost against competition from China and other nations.
The revival of subsidies in the U.S. and Europe “distorts the value of competition and a level playing field,” Schwan said. “I really see a danger that people are jumping on that wagon.”
Schwan is chairman of a council of international business leaders that advises the mayor of Shanghai. He spoke Sunday at the council’s annual meeting after a visit to Beijing in which he told the country’s vice premier that Switzerland-based Roche was full of confidence in China’s economic prospects, according to state media.
The U.S. and European Union have long accused China of giving its companies an unfair edge through subsidies, easy access to credit and other government support. One estimate by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, found the scale of China’s state support for its industries by a broad definition reached nearly 5% of its annual national income.
The EU is planning tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles that the EU says are needed to even out the playing field.
The U.S. is supporting American manufacturing that competes with China with tens of billions of dollars of subsidies, including money for makers of batteries and solar panels. The $53 billion Chips and Science Act is helping companies such as Intel and Taiwan’s TSMC build advanced semiconductor factories, a business in which China is also hoping to rise.
Without giving examples, Schwan said such Western policies were ultimately counterproductive because they encouraged companies to put their hands out for government favors.
He said governments should “put the money into basic research.” If companies ask for help, he said, it would be “a waste of money—don’t do it.”
He didn’t comment on China’s subsidy policies but suggested the country shouldn’t try to match what the U.S. and Europe are doing. “Here in China, you have a chance to do the right thing,” Schwan said.
One Western executive attending the conference said he had a different view about Western subsidies, describing them as useful to jump-start nascent technologies such as renewable energy. He said global businesses welcomed U.S. efforts to improve its infrastructure.
Write to Peter Landers at Peter.Landers@wsj.com