Beijing, October 29: The United States and China huddled Thursday for key talks on trade disputes, clean energy and climate change less than three weeks before a visit by US President Barack Obama.
US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met for a second day with a team led by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
Obama is due to begin his first presidential visit to China on November 15, and the two sides are looking to smooth over trade tensions before his high-profile trip to Shanghai and Beijing.
Locke said ahead of the US leader’s visit that it was “critical we make concrete demonstrable progress today to demonstrate to our citizens and to the entire world that China and the United States can work together to achieve results.”
He told delegates to the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) that disagreements between Washington and Beijing were “bound to arise” but called them a “sign of the maturity” of the bilateral relationship.
Obama ignited the first major trade dispute of his presidency last month when he imposed punitive duties on Chinese-made tyres.
Beijing retaliated by lodging a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and launching an investigation into possible unfair trade practices involving imports of US car products and chicken meat.
Beijing has charged that Washington’s move violated WTO rules, but Obama has denied that it amounted to protectionism.
Wang urged both sides to “stand firmly against all forms of trade protectionism and work together to promote the recovery of economic growth” in the two countries.
Locke said “priority market access issues” would be addressed in the fields of agriculture, clean energy, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications, along with the protection of intellectual property rights.
The US trade deficit with China is the widest Washington has with any country, totalling 143.7 billion dollars in the first eight months of 2009, according to US data — down 15.1 percent from the same period last year.
The two countries, the world’s biggest sources of carbon emissions, also said climate change would be addressed ahead of talks in Copenhagen in December on a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
The US and China were expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation following the annual JCCT talks in Hangzhou, which began late Wednesday.
—Agencies