| Chinese and US Commerce Ministers Met in Washington |
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| 2009-05-19 13:43 |
On April 27, Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming met with the US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke for the first time in Washington. Both sides expressed willingness to expand bilateral economic and trade ties and jointly resist protectionism.
The two ministers also exchanged views on topics of concern, such as the preparation for the next China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), the ease of export control and the provision of expedient visa issuance to business personnel traveling between the two countries.
Chen noted that the Chinese and US heads of state recently met in London and reached a consensus on the joint development of a comprehensive China-US relationship featuring positive cooperation in the 21st century. The repositioning of the China-US relationship has set forth an increased need to improve China-US economic and trade ties in the new era. Under the current situation, which has been intensified by the impact of the financial crisis, the abandonment of trade protectionism as well as the reinforcement and development of China-US economic and trade ties will be of great significance to the economies of both these two countries and to the rest of the world.
Chen put forward four suggestions for strengthening China-US economic and trade collaboration. Firstly, China-US economic and trade relations should be viewed and handled with a focus on strategy and a long-term perspective, so as to ensure mutual benefit and constructive progress. This allows the bilateral high-level strategic and economic dialogue mechanism, which incorporates the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the JCCT, to fully play a role in appropriately addressing economic and trade disputes.
Secondly, both sides should expand mutually beneficial cooperation with an open mind and a view to develop, treat joint efforts to cope with the financial crisis and fight trade and investment protectionism as the key points in the current effort to strengthen China-US economic and trade cooperation, and work together to encourage the resumption of the Doha Round of talks as soon as possible.
Thirdly, both sides should vigorously carry out activities to promote bilateral trade and investment, and launch full-scale cooperation in fields such as high technology, finance, biology, information, energy and environment, medicine and health. The Chinese side will try to promote a balanced development in bilateral trade, and will encourage strong Chinese enterprises to invest in the US while also welcoming US enterprises to actively invest in China. The Chinese side also hopes that the US will relax restrictions on its exports to China and will create a fair competitive environment for Chinese companies investing in the US.
Fourthly, both sides should continuously promote mutual understanding, enhance trust and respect on both sides and give due consideration to each other's interests and concerns in a pragmatic manner, so as to achieve a mutually beneficial, win-win situation. The US recently filed a series of applications to investigate "anti-dumping, anti-countervailing and special safeguard measures” against Chinese-made oil well tubing and tires. China is hoping that the relevant US administrative authorities will exercise caution in their use of trade relief measures and deal with relevant issues in an objective and fair manner in accordance with the consensus reached at the G20 Summit on fighting trade protectionism.
Locke said the new US administration attaches importance to developing China-US bilateral relations and hopes to boost bilateral trade and friendly relations between people's of the two nations through cooperation. Both the US and China benefit from the continuous development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, while expanding two-way investment across both sides of the Pacific Ocean is in line with the two nations' long-term strategic interests. Both sides should continue to open up markets to each other and join hands to resist trade protectionism.
According to the website of the US Department of Commerce, while serving as Governor of Washington state, Locke helped double the state's export value to China to 5 billion USD per year. During the one-hour meeting with Minister Chen, both sides discussed increasing US exports to China.
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