Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao in Seattle yesterday called
for joint efforts to resolve the issue of trade imbalance between
China and the US.
Speaking at a luncheon here hosted by the Washington State, the
Seattle business community and local organizations, Hu said China
took trade imbalance between the two countries seriously and worked
hard to address the issue.
"China continues to implement the policy of expanding domestic
demand to drive its economic and social development," he said.
"China does not seek a large trade surplus."
The Chinese president said his country's trade surplus with the
US, fundamentally speaking, results from different industrial
restructuring of the two countries and the accelerated
international division of labor driven by economic
globalization.
At least 90 percent of US imports from China are goods that are
no longer produced in the US, he said.
Hu added that China had been increasing import from the US and
worked hard to reduce its trade surplus with the country.
China will further open its market to US goods and services, the
president noted.
"On our part, we hope that the US will take steps to promote the
export of US products to China, including easing export controls
and reducing protectionist measures in the interest of addressing
the trade imbalance issue in a better and more effective way," Hu
said.
On the protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), Hu said
China was firm in protecting the IPR and fighting piracy.
"We will continue to improve the legal regime for IPR
protection, set up law enforcement and crack down hard on IPR
infringement to protect the lawful rights and interests of foreign
IPR proprietors in China in accordance with the law," Hu said.
China will continue to strengthen cooperation in IPR protection
with the US and the international community, he noted.
As for the issue of the RMB exchange rate, Hu said China had
taken "a highly responsible attitude" in deciding upon an exchange
rate regime suitable to its national conditions in light of the
actual state of its economic and social development and the need to
ensure global financial and economic stability.
He noted that last July, China put in place a managed floating
exchange rate regime based on market supply and demand with
reference to a basket of currencies.
China will continue to firmly promote financial reforms, improve
the RMB exchange rate setting mechanism, develop the foreign
exchange market, increase the flexibility of the RMB exchange rate,
and improve the capacity of financial institutions to set prices at
their own discretion and to conduct risk management, Hu said.
"Our goal is to maintain the RMB exchange rate basically stable
at an adaptive and equilibrium level," said the president. "This
serves the interests of China, the interests of the US and the
common interests of all countries in Asia and the world at
large."
On the issue of energy and resources, Hu said, "As China's
economy continues to grow, so does its demand for energy."
China, as a major energy consumer and producer, "follows the
basic principle of meeting its energy needs mainly through domestic
supply," he said.
China places equal importance on energy development and
conservation and focuses on more efficient use of energy, Hu
said.
He said that since the 1990s, China had met over 90 percent of
its energy demand with domestic supply.
In 2010, China's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is
projected to double that of year 2000 and the energy consumption
per unit of GDP is to be reduced by 20 percent from that of 2005,
Hu said.
"At the same time, China will speed up changing the pattern of
economic growth, vigorously develop a circular economy and build a
resource-conservation and environment friendly society to achieve
sustainable development," said the president.
He promised that China would follow international practices and
work together with the US and other countries to conduct energy
cooperation and maintain order in the international energy
market.
Hu arrived here Tuesday for his first state visit to the US,
with Seattle being the first stop of his four-day stay in the
country.
The US is the first leg of his five-nation tour, which will also
take him to Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya.
(Xinhua News Agency April 20, 2006)