WASHINGTON - American companies are losing business opportunities and market share in China because of the export control policy against China, said Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming on Monday in Washington.

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"Because the US restricts its export of high technology to China, American companies suffered a lot in terms of losing market share in China, " Chen said at a press briefing during the economic track of the third round of US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), which kicked off here Monday.

"The current imbalance in trade between the two countries is the result of multiple reasons, and also a result of many years of trade imbalance," Chen said.

He said that the two sides addressed trade imbalance issue among other economic topics during the morning session of the economic dialogue.

"The way to resolve the imbalance is to ease the export control regime of the United States toward China and to encourage US export to China rather than restricting Chinese export to the United States," he added.

China is the United States' second-largest trading partner and its third-largest export market, with bilateral trade totaling about $385 billion dollars in 2010, according to Chinese customs statistics.