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Official is in the US to meet with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to discuss trade issues

WASHINGTON, DC – 04/28/09 – Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming has called for stronger economic ties between China and the US.

"Economic links have always been an important basis for the China-US relationship, and the growth in trade between the two countries has been robust since the establishment of normal diplomatic relations," Chen wrote in an Opinion Page piece published in The Wall Street Journal yesterday.

Currently, China and the US are each other's second-largest trading partner with the volume of the two-way trade in goods exceeding $300 billion annually. But the commercial ties between the two nations have been affected by the current global financial crisis.

Figures recently published by the Chinese government show trade between the two countries has declined 6.8%, while US investment in China slumped 19.4% on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year.

Chen met with US Commerce Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke yesterday to discuss bilateral trade and investment issues.

"History tells us that the more serious a crisis becomes, the more committed we must be to openness and cooperation," Chen wrote. "Regrettably, however, trade measures by the US against China are on the rise."

Recently, American industries “have petitioned the US government for antidumping investigations, and for investigations under the World Trade Organization's ‘special safeguard provision,’ which could restrict imports of Chinese products,” a development, he said, “will seriously test China-US economic and trade relations.”

The Chinese commerce minister noted that the need to foster positive Sino-US ties “has never been greater” and called on both sides to “step up cooperation in trade and investment issues, and explore and establish new possibilities for cooperation in such areas as agriculture, new and high technology, finance, energy and the environment.”

Mutually beneficial dialogue and communication “also need to be intensified concerning multilateral and regional trade and economic affairs," he said.

Chen stressed the need to “mutually open markets to expand trade and investment; strengthen bilateral dialogue and resolve differences properly; safeguard the environment for trade; and advance the Doha Round.”

He also took the opportunity to stress the need to oppose a drift toward protectionism. in both countries.

The US and China, as the largest and the third-largest trading countries in the world respectively, he said, “should take the lead in following up the consensus reached at the G20 Summit in London and refrain from formulating any new trade protection policies before the end of 2010. A positive, cooperative and comprehensive Sino-American relationship will surely bring new prosperity and development to both economies.”

In his Opinion piece, Chen also expressed hope and confidence that bilateral trade “would rise to a new high and exceed $500 billion in the next five years, growing in a more balanced way.

The Chinese official’s visit to Washington, DC coincided with the signing of more than 30 business contracts valued at billions of dollars by members of a Chinese trade delegation and a number of US-based firms including FedEx, Dell, and Lenovo.

The trade delegation arrived in San Francisco last week and will visit Chicago and Washington, DC before returning to China on May 1.

The mission is intended to promote bilateral trade relations and improve trade balance, according to an announcement on the website of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME).

The industry group said in the announcement that the team will sign purchase contracts, visit famous US enterprises, and forge other cooperation agreements during the trip.

The buying trip comes only two months after a commerce minister-led trade mission to Europe, where Chinese enterprises signed deals worth more than $13 billion in four countries.

The delegation is also seen as a precursor to the strategic and economic dialogue between China and the US in summer.

President Hu Jintao and US President Barack Obama announced during the recent G20 summit held in London earlier this month that the two countries have agreed to set up a "strategic and economic dialogue" mechanism, an upgraded version of the Strategic Economic Dialogue, or SED, a bi-annual event initiated by Hu and former President George W Bush in 2006.

Beijing dispatched similar missions to the US before each year's SED. During such trips between then and 2008, Chinese enterprises purchased technologies, goods and services worth $62.4 billion.

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