US Auditors to Observe in China
Finally, so good news about Sino-US trust-building in the midst of all the China bashing going on in the US presidential campaign and generally.
U.S. authorities have reached a tentative agreement to observe official auditor inspections in China, moving a step closer to better oversight in that country, an official at a U.S. audit watchdog group said on Friday.
The plan to allow U.S. observers in China will be a “trust-building exercise” that could lead to more cooperation, Lewis Ferguson, a board member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, said in prepared remarks.
The PCAOB announced in May that it was close to an agreement to observe audit inspections in China. The watchdog has been trying for years to gain access to China to address a rash of accounting scandals at Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.
Since 2010, U.S. investors have lost billions of dollars on China-based companies listed on U.S. exchanges after questions were raised about the companies’ accounts.
“We are working toward and have tentatively agreed on observational visits,” he said, without spelling out when the tentative agreement might become final.
– Reuters