Senior officials of China and the United States will sit down
together to discuss their trade issue this week as Chinese Vice
Premier Wu
Yi and her top-level delegation left for the United States on
Monday.
Madame Wu will jointly chair the 15th session of the Joint
Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) with US Secretary of
Commerce Donald Evans and Trade Representative Robert Zoellick in
Washington on Wednesday.
Topics expected to be addressed at the session include hot
economic and trade issues that have emerged since late last
year.
High on the agenda for the United States are likely issues of
value-added tax on imported semiconductors, intellectual property
rights protection, the technical standard on the WAPI wireless
network, and trade imbalance.
China is likely to ask the United States to ease its control on
exports of high-tech products, to recognize its market economy
status and to cut restrictions on its exports of textile products,
among other things.
Chinese analysts said both sides would have to turn to their
political wisdom and negotiation skills in the one-day meeting if
some concrete results were to be achieved.
First set up in 1983, the JCCT has been the highest level
bilateral consultation mechanism on trade and commerce between
China and the United States. But this year's session is the highest
level of the past decade.
Both China and the United States have described their political
relations as "good" in general and "best in history." The increase
of trade disputes between the United States and China, Chinese
observers acknowledged, is "nothing new" in the US election
year.
Trade between China and the United States has been on a fast
track over past years. Chinese statistics show that two-way trade
hit US$126.3 billion last year, as against merely US$2 billion in
1978.
US figures indicate that while its foreign trade volume
decreased by three percent from 2001 to 2003, its trade with China
surged 43 percent annually in the three years, making China the
third largest trading partner of the United States.
During his recent visit to China, US Vice President Dick Cheney
said both China and the United States meant increasingly crucial to
each other and that to expand trade and economic cooperation would
serve the fundamental interests of the people of both nations and
benefit the world at large.
China and the United States have voiced their readiness to
resolve trade disputes through consultations and negotiations.
Premier Wen Jiabao said during his meeting with Cheney last week
that China and the United States should view their relations from a
"long-term and strategic" perspective, and should strengthen their
trade relations on the basis of "mutual respect, equality and
mutual benefit."
Moreover, Wen made a five-point proposal on handling Sino-US
trade and economic ties when he met with President George W. Bush
late last year in Washington, with the central idea of handling
disputes on the basis of "equality, development and mutual
benefit."
Officials of both countries have been making extensive
preparations for the meeting, after it was set during the Wen-Bush
meeting last year. Wu's entourage includes senior officials from
several Chinese ministries such as the Ministry of Commerce, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Development and Reform
Commission, the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of
Health.
During her stay in Washington, Vice Premier Wu Yi is also likely
to meet with senior officials of the US government, members of
Congress and business people, according to Chinese sources.
US Undersecretary of Commerce Grant Aldonas said in Washington
recently that the US government is much focused on the positive
outcome of the JCCT meeting.
"We are really hopeful the [JCCT] meeting in April will truly
produce concrete results," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2004)