The US has won a string of commitments from China aimed at narrowing a record trade gap, but US industry groups said the real test could come next week in talks between Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and US President George W. Bush over China's currency system.
In a leadup to those discussions on April 20, top economic officials from both countries struck a series of deals on Tuesday in which China pledged to lift its ban on US beef, to crack down on the sale of pirated computer software and to begin negotiations on allowing foreign firms to compete for Chinese government contracts.
The talks on Tuesday were led by US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and US Trade Representative Rob Portman, both of whom praised the Chinese for the commitments they did make.
"In our discussions today, which were very frank and positive, we were able to solve some problems," Portman said at a joint closing news conference.
Boosting imports
Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi (吳儀), who led the Chinese delegation, said her country has been "earnestly implementing" the directions of China's top leaders to boost imports from the US.
China agreed to move to lift the beef ban it imposed after the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in the US in December 2003, but said it would do so only after certain technical issues were resolved.
US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns predicted those details would soon be worked out, but he refused to give a timetable of when beef shipments could resume.
On copyright piracy, China agreed to require that all computers sold in the country be loaded with legal operating software and to increase enforcement efforts against all forms of copyright piracy.
The Chinese have made previous pledges to crack down on copyright piracy, but piracy rates for computer software remain near 90 percent. Gutierrez said the US government would be closely monitoring implementation of Tuesday's agreements.
"As in everything else, the numbers will ultimately tell the story," he told reporters.
Wu said that she was traveling with a delegation of more than 200 Chinese business executives with the expectation that they will sign 107 contracts to buy US$16.2 billion in US products during stops in a number of states.
Boeings
Those deals included the signing on Tuesday of a purchase agreement for 80 commercial jetliners from Boeing Co, at a list price of US$4.6 billion.
This agreement completes a commitment China made during Bush's visit last November to purchase 150 Boeing planes.
China also made commitments to streamline the approval of US medical devices for sale in China, to adjust capital requirements that US telecommunications companies see as a major barrier to setting up Chinese operations and to make sure new rules do not discriminate against US express delivery firms.
US industry groups were generally pleased with the results of an annual meeting of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, which was created in 1983 to resolve trade frictions between the two nations.
Frank Vargo, vice president for international trade at the National Association of Manufacturers, called the deals announced on Tuesday "incremental contributions to the removal of trade obstacles."
But he said he was hopeful that they will set the stage for a significant breakthrough during the Bush-Hu summit next week on the issue of currency.
Bush, citing the US' US$202 billion deficit with China, said on Monday he was hopeful that Hu would address the currency issue during his visit.
Alan Tonelson, a research follow at the US Business Industry Council, which represents many small manufacturing companies, said the Bush administration had settled for "photo ops and tokenism" rather than insisting on real changes in China's unfair trade practices.
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