US Treasury Secretary John Snow arrived in Tokyo yesterday to launch a regional tour set to be dominated by US calls for deep-seated reform of China's currency and trade regimes.
Snow was also expected to push strident US demands for a revival of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) stuttering drive to tear down trade barriers, as the clock ticks down to a crucial meeting in Hong Kong in two months.
Snow was to meet Japanese Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki for talks over dinner today at a time of rare hope for the world's second-largest economy after a slump stretching back more than a decade.
Tanigaki was also expected to brief Snow "about the timing of the prime minister's reform agenda, including the all-important postal savings reform," said the treasury undersecretary for international affairs, Tim Adams.
The US finance minister is scheduled to leave Tokyo for Shanghai tomorrow for a week-long swing through China, including a meeting next weekend near Beijing of the Group of 20 larger developing countries and rich nations.
The G20 talks are mainly focussed on development issues and reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, "though I suspect the top issue will be energy," Adams said.
The G20 meeting comes with high oil prices straining economies in both the developed and developing worlds.
It also comes in the run-up to the WTO ministerial gathering in December.
"Hopefully I expect we'll reaffirm the importance of having a successful Doha [WTO] round and the importance of ever-increasing trade to global growth," Adams said ahead of the G20.
Following stops in Shanghai and Chengdu, Snow's tour will climax after the G20 with an annual meeting of the Sino-US Joint Economic Commission (JEC) in Beijing.
A top-level US team led by Snow and Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan will thrash out a heavy agenda with senior Chinese officials including Finance Minister Jin Renqing (
In advance of the trip, the treasury postponed the release of a twice-yearly report on global currency policies that many in Congress say should label China a "manipulator" of its exchange rate -- opening up the threat of US sanctions.
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