As a phase one trade agreement between the U.S. and China made global headlines late last week, a much quieter round of talks took place that could produce a similar breakthrough for many Chinese tech firms listed on U.S. stock markets.

Those talks haven’t received much ink, even though the issue driving them has been a sore point behind the scenes for nearly two decades. They made a somewhat unexpected appearance this week in a Bloomberg article, which said U.S. and Chinese securities regulators were discussing a deal that would give the former access to books of the many Chinese companies listed in New York.

The deal has been a focus of on-again-off-again talks since 2011, when short sellers attacked a company named Longtop Financial, accusing it of financial misdeeds in its reports. The company eventually collapsed, but the U.S. regulator fought to gain access to its books because they were in China. Such a lack of access broadly undermines confidence in the big pool of Chinese firms now listed in the U.S., led by such big high-tech names as Alibaba, Baidu, and JD.com.

An agreement on the matter would help to boost confidence, though observers who work with the companies don’t expect any rally in the immediate wake of a deal. But as the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats, and thus such an agreement will almost certainly have a longer-term positive effect on the quality of Chinese firms that list in the U.S.

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Contact reporter Doug Young (dougyoung@caixin.com; Twitter: @youngchinabiz)

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