The US and China yesterday huddled for key talks on trade disputes, clean energy and climate change less than three weeks before a visit by US President Barack Obama.
US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke (駱家輝), Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack met for a second day with a team led by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan (王岐山) in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
Obama is due to begin his first presidential visit to China on Nov. 15, and two sides are looking to smooth over trade tensions on a number of issues before his high-profile trip to Shanghai and Beijing.
PHOTO: AFP
Locke said it was “critical we make concrete demonstrable progress today to demonstrate to our citizens and to the entire world that China and the United States can work together to achieve results.”
He told delegates to the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) that disagreements between Washington and Beijing were “bound to arise” but called them a “sign of the maturity” of the bilateral relationship.
Kirk noted “the candor and the frankness” of early-morning group meetings held before the main plenary session — a sign of possible frictions — and suggested the JCCT framework be expanded to include more regular meetings .
“It’s important we have a year-long process so we can identify problems ahead of time instead of always being in a position of having to work to resolve challenges,” he said, using diplomatic language suggesting tough talks.
Obama ignited the first major trade dispute of his presidency last month when he imposed punitive duties on Chinese-made tires.
Beijing retaliated by lodging a complaint at the WTO and launching an investigation into possible unfair trade practices involving imports of US car products and chicken meat.
Beijing has charged that Washington’s move violated WTO rules, but Obama has denied that it amounted to protectionism.
The two sides are also at odds over pirated music and movies.
Wang urged both sides to “stand firmly against all forms of trade protectionism and work together to promote the recovery of economic growth” in the two countries.
“Economic interdependence deepens day-by-day, and one cannot do without the other,” he said.
Locke said “priority market access issues” would be addressed in the fields of agriculture, clean energy, pharmaceuticals and telecoms, along with the protection of intellectual property rights.
The US trade deficit with China is the widest Washington has with any country, totalling US$143.7 billion in the first eight months of this year, down 15.1 percent from the same period last year, US data showed.
The two countries, the world’s biggest sources of carbon emissions, also said climate change would be addressed ahead of talks in Copenhagen in December on a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The US and China were expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation at the end of the annual talks, which began late on Wednesday.
Locke said the value of the US-pegged yuan would not be discussed during the talks. The US Treasury said earlier that the Chinese currency was “undervalued,” chiding Beijing for a “lack of flexibility.”
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS