CHINA’S securities regulator chided its U.S. counterpart Friday over the latest ruling in a long-running and thorny dispute over access to documents that has snagged the world’s top four accounting firms.

    At a regular news briefing, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) spokesman Deng Ge expressed “deep regret” over a ruling that the Chinese units of the four companies should be suspended from auditing U.S.-listed companies for six months.

    “The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would bear all the responsibility for the consequences of its action,” Deng said.

    In a ruling earlier last week, SEC Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot censured the Chinese affiliates of KPMG, Deloitte & Touche, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst and Young, for failing to give U.S. regulators audit documents of certain Chinese companies under investigation for accounting fraud.

    The SEC for years has been trying to get its hands on the documents, saying it needs them for investigations into a rash of accounting scandals that have plagued many Chinese companies listed in the United States.

    The firms have said that handing over the documents could lay them open to criminal prosecution in China for breaching that country’s secrecy laws.

    The four companies have said they will appeal the ruling.

    The CSRC has also warned the United States of “consequences” Friday. The decision to ban the Chinese affiliates of the accounting firms for six months “ignored” China’s efforts and progress made on cross-border regulatory cooperation, the CSRC said.

    “We hope the SEC will take into consideration the big picture of China-U.S. regulatory cooperation, make the right judgment to resolve the situation properly,” the CSRC said on its microblog. “The SEC should bear all responsibility to possible consequences arising from the decision.”

    The ruling, if finalized, could impact the 425 Chinese companies — with a total market capitalization of US$185 billion — traded in New York.

    The judge’s ruling is not expected to be disruptive to U.S.-listed Chinese companies relying on these firms to review their 2013 books as it will not go into immediate effect. The appeal process may last years.

    (SD-Agencies)