China and U.S. begin annual trade talks

[News_Editor]

China and U.S. begin annual trade talks

2010-12-15 10:10:15 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- China and the United States on Tuesday began their annual trade talks in Washington, D.C. as part of the 21st Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) meeting, the Washington Post reported.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan arrived in the U.S. and was received by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The talks began between high officials of both nations but the plenary session of the JCCT meeting will be held on Wednesday.

This will be the latest annual meeting of the nearly 30-year-old U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. This year, talks are held at a particularly difficult time in what has become perhaps the world's central economic relationship.

The U.S. is currently suffering a large trade deficit which is blamed by many for the high U.S. jobless rate, particularly in the manufacturing sector. The U.S. has also pressured China on issues such as the management of its currency and on its variety of trading practices.

China expects that the two nations will sign a number of bilateral agreements on governmental cooperation at the JCCT meeting. In addition, there will be talks on investment, trade, intellectual property right and other issues.

The JCCT meeting began in 1983 as a platform for both countries to promote trade and address issues of mutual concern. The last JCCT talks took place in east China's Hangzhou City in October 2009.

On the eve of the talks, the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday upheld the stiff U.S. government-imposed duties on car tires imported from China last year. The U.S. imposed a 35 percent tax on Chinese tires to protect local industries and workers from increases in Chinese imports for a duration of three years.

The three years of levies are intended to give the U.S. industry time to adjust to the import competition as the rapid increase in imports had hurt the domestic industry. Trade Representative Kirk labeled it as a major victory to enforce trade agreements.

Chinese tire imports to the United States tripled between 2004 and 2008 to 46 million tires worth an estimated $1.7 billion. China formally protested the Obama Administration's action last year, alleging that it violated WTO rules. The WTO, however, sided with the U.S.

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