The Trump administration plans to scrap a 2013 agreement between US and Chinese auditing authorities, a senior State Department official said, a move that could foreshadow a crackdown on US-listed Chinese firms under fire for sidestepping US disclosure rules. But the watchdog, known as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), has long complained of China's failure to grant requests, meaning scant insight into audits of Chinese firms that trade on US exchanges. The White House declined to comment, while the PCAOB did not immediately respond to requests for comment. China's Foreign Ministry, in a reply to Reuters, said abolishing the memorandum of understanding would not help improve the supervision of listed companies in the United States and would damage the interests of investors. Among some of the bigger Chinese companies trading in the US are Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Baidu Inc.

Source: Irish Independent July 15, 2020 01:30 UTC