Senior officials from China and the United States have signed eight documents designed to boost economic and trade relations.

The new deals, thrashed out at a one-day meeting in Washington, include commitments by China to crack down on counterfeits of American products and open more of its markets to US companies.

The deals fulfill promises China made when it joined the World Trade Organization two years ago.

The bush administration hailed the new deals at a signing ceremony late on Wednesday.

"This is a landmark day and a very fruitful day in terms of the developing relationship between the US and China," said Commerce Secretary Don Evans, who led a team that included US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.

The deals were reached at a meeting of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, which meets annually to deal with economic issues between the two countries.

China sent a 70-member delegation led by Vice Premier Wu Yi.

The Chinese gave the US a plan to crack down on what US industry says is the rampant piracy and counterfeiting of American products. The plan includes stiffer criminal penalties and nationwide enforcement.

China also pledged to allow US companies to distribute their products to Chinese stores without having to go through a state-owned distribution company.

The Chinese also agreed to drop plans to start using on June 1 a unique wireless encryption standard for computer and mobile phone operations and instead committed to working through international standard-setting bodies.

Wu said China promised to ensure that the adoption of the new standards for local area networks would be fair to US companies.

The US agreed to a Chinese demand for reconsideration of certain high-technology products that American companies are banned from exporting to China on the grounds they could be diverted to military uses.

China refused to lift its bans on imports of American beef and poultry imposed because of recent health concerns.

But it did lift a four-month ban on imports of certain American cosmetics after receiving documentation that showed the products did not contain animal-related ingredients prohibited in China.

Wu also met US President George W. Bush at the White House.

Bush reiterated that the US sticks to the one-China policy.

Bush told Wu that there is no change in the position he stated about the Taiwan issue when he met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in the Oval Office of the White House last December.

(eastday.com April 23, 2004)