A senior US commerce official has acknowledged Beijing's efforts
to open up the markets but said there are still issues to be
addressed.
"China has honored its WTO commitments since 2001" and the two
countries have an overall "positive relationship", Franklin Lavin,
the US under secretary of commerce for international trade, told US
entrepreneurs in China yesterday.
He said he is "generally optimistic" about the relationship
between the two economies as there are "senior-level political
commitments from both sides that they want to maintain the positive
relations".
As a result of the Chinese government's massive efforts to
narrow the trade gap with the United States, that country's exports
to China increased by over 30 percent year-on-year in 2006.
Lavin also put forward a number of issues "challenging the
commercial ties between the two economies".
He cited pharmaceuticals, steel and copyright protection, saying
foreign businesses still faced obstacles and these were the main
priorities for Washington. He claimed "trade barriers" in certain
sectors made it difficult for US businesses to operate in
China.
Lavin said the US needs to see some concrete results from the
next session of the strategic economic dialogue, the
highest-profile communication mechanism between the two countries
chaired by Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi and US Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson, when the two sides next meet in Washington in
May.
(China Daily March 30, 2007)