U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez(Left) and Trade Representative Rob Portman(Right)

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Trade Representative Rob Portman will start a three-day visit to China Thursday to tackle textile trade and piracy issues.

The Oriental Morning Press quoted the US Commerce Department as saying that Gutierrez will meet his Chinese counterpart on this Saturday.

Before his trip to Russia and China, Gutierrez said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that this is an opportunity to explain the America's view on re-imposition of quotas.

Trade disputes on textile trade between China and the US have been escalated during the past week, as China announced it would cancel export tariffs on 81 categories of textile export products beginning June 1, 2005.

Widespread piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. goods is a sore spot in trade relations with both countries.

It has been a major obstacle in U.S. negotiations with Russia on an agreement that would pave the way for that country to join the World Trade Organization.

U.S. music, movie and software industry groups estimate they lose from $2.5 billion to $3.8 billion annually in China through sales of illegal copies of their products.

Gutierrez has visited St. Petersburg, Moscow and will arrive in Beijing on a week-long trip that begins last Saturday.

"We have seen China put in place the legal framework to deal with intellectual property, and what we would like to see now is enforcement," he said.

"We will be highlighting areas where we''d like to see greater enforcement and offering up our support to help them."

Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai told a press conference on Sunday that he is ready to negotiate with Gutierrez and Portman on every issue concerning the Sino-US trade.

He also called for solutions to the textile disputes based on mutual benefit principles.