Fair dialogue key to handle trade problems (Xinhua) Updated: 2005-07-11 21:01 Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here on Monday
that China and the United States should properly handle problems in their trade
and economic cooperation through fair dialogue and consultation.
Wen made the marks when meeting with US Secretary of Commerce Carlos
Gutierrez, Trade Representative Robert Portman and Secretary of Agriculture
Michael Johanns, who are here for a China-US trade and economic joint committee
annual meeting.
"Trade and economic cooperation are important component parts of Sino-US
relations and a concrete indication of the two countries' interests," Wen said.
"It has been proved that the development of Sino-US trade and economic ties
has yielded tangible benefits for the people of the two countries and promoted
the mutual-beneficial cooperation between China and the United States," he said.
China is the largest developing country and the United States, the largest
developed one, Wen said. "Maintaining the steady and fast growth in the two
economies will contribute to the world economy in an era of globalization."
"Closer trade and economic cooperation between the two countries will benefit
the world economy and that is very significant," he said.
The Chinese premier urged the two countries to deal with bilateral trade and
economic ties with regard to long-term benefits and from a global point of view.
"We two countries should respect and handle each other's concerns, properly
deal with problems emerging in our cooperation through equal dialogue and
friendly consultation and exert common efforts for the sound development of our
trade and economic cooperation."
Gutierrez said the one-day annual meeting of the US-China Joint Commission on
Commerce and Trade (JCCT) is a good meeting and the two sides had a "very honest
and frank" dialogue during the session.
It "reflected a growing and strengthening partnership" between the two
countries, he said, noting such cooperation will be a "true model" for the
world.
Portman said the JCCT meeting resulted in steady progress in many fields.
Johanns said he was optimistic about the future development of US-China
agricultural trade.
At JCCT meeting, involving Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi and the US officials,
were discussed a number of hot trade issues ranging from textile disputes to
intellectual property rights protection.
Trade between the two countries has surged rapidly over the past years. In
2004, two-way trade hit 169.6 billion US dollars, about 69 times that the figure
in early 1979 when China and the United States established full diplomatic
relations.
The United States is now China's second largest trading partnerafter the
European Union while China is the third largest trading partner of the United
States.
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