Jack Lew says China’s dumping of steel and aluminum has a damaging effect on global markets.

BEIJING — Treasury Secretary Jack Lew chided China on Monday for allowing a glut of steel and aluminum to flood global markets, and urged Beijing to treat foreign companies with the same openness that Chinese firms often receive across the world.

The annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue is usually an occasion when the two sides try to highlight areas of cooperation and progress. But this year’s event in Beijing is overshadowed by growing trade and commercial frictions, as well as continued sparring over China’s efforts to exert greater control over the South China Sea.

Massive investment in heavy industry in China’s boom years has led to an overhang of production capacity.

With economic growth slowing, the government has been left propping up industries such as steel, aluminum, shipbuilding and coal mining.

Now, the issue has become a global one.

China is accused of dumping much of the excess production in Western markets, causing job losses and protests. The U.S. Commerce Department responded last month by imposing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on many Chinese steel products.

“Excess capacity has a distorting effect and damaging effect on global markets,” Lew said at the start of two days of high-level talks. “Implementing policies to substantially reduce production in a range of sectors suffering from overcapacity, including steel and aluminum, is critical to the function and stability of global markets.”

On Sunday, during a talk at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, Lew said excess steel capacity would also have a “corrosive” effect on China’s economic efficiency.

China produces more than half of the world’s steel, but argues that excess capacity in the industry is a global issue. It also accuses the United States of protecting and subsidizing its domestic iron and steel industry for more than three decades, allowing it to become uncompetitive globally.

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