A senior Chinese official urged the United States to “properly settle” the ongoing textile trade dispute and claimed that her country is making progress in the protection of intellectual property rights.
“Sino-US economic and trade ties are generally good, and the Chinese government attaches importance to such relations,” Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi told US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Trade representative Rob Portman in Beijing on Saturday.
“I hope China and the United States can jointly preserve and promote sound economic and trade ties,” she said.
Wu, who is in charge of China’s foreign trade and investment, said she appreciated US President George W. Bush’s foresight and courage,” calling him a “politician and strategist” when he vetoed several bills that might have hurt Sino-US economic relations.
But, she said, the textile issue has created a “major problem” that has “greatly concerned” the Chinese government. Washington has decided to restrict some Chinese textile and clothing imports despite the elimination of quotas by the World Trade Organization on January 1, Chinese officials have noted.
The US actions sparked anger in the Chinese textile and clothing industry, which reportedly may cut up to 100,000 Chinese jobs as a result.
On the intellectual property rights issue, Wu said, “China has exerted great effort and obtained obvious results in both legislation and law enforcement....We don’t deny that there are problems, but they are being settled,” Wu said.
Gutierrez and Portman said the Bush administration believes in fair and free trade and values US-China economic and trade relations.
Gutierrez, on his first visit to China after taking office, also met with Chinese Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai on Saturday to talk about textile issues, intellectual property rights protection and the US trade deficit with China.
“Sino-US trade witnessed such great progress in the last 26 or 27 years, and our countries should have the capability to properly deal with the textile trade issue and other questions,” Bo said.