WASHINGTON – The Bush administration pushed for concrete results in high-level trade talks with China that began Tuesday, but the head of the Chinese delegation bluntly warned against confrontation.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said it was important that the two days of talks produce results to build trust between the two countries. He said Americans were by nature impatient people, and he said the two sides should work to build a “roadmap to the future.”
The administration is anxious for success stories to show an increasingly restive Congress, where lawmakers blame America’s soaring trade deficits and the loss of one in six manufacturing jobs since 2000 in part on China’s trade practices in such areas as currency manipulation and copyright piracy.
The U.S. delegation also raised the issue of food safety highlighted by such incidents as the deaths of pets that had eaten pet food made with tainted wheat gluten from China.
“They know this is an issue that concerns us and concerns the American people,” said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who said the issue would be addressed more formally.
In opening remarks, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi cautioned the United States against pursuing a blame game.
“We should not easily blame the other side for our own domestic problems,” Wu said, speaking through an interpreter. “Confrontation does no good at all to problem-solving.”
Wu, who gained a reputation for tough speaking when she was China’s top trade negotiator, said that both sides should “firmly oppose trade protectionism.”
Lawmakers are pushing a variety of bills that would impose economic sanctions on China in the wake of a trade deficit with China that last year hit $232.5 billion, accounting for one-third of America’s total record deficit of $765.3 billion.
Breakthroughs at this meeting were expected in the area of cutting tariffs on sales of American energy technology products and services in China and increasing U.S. airline passenger and cargo flights to China.
American manufacturers contend that China is manipulating its currency to keep it undervalued against the dollar by as much as 40 percent, making Chinese goods cheaper in the U.S. market and American products more expensive in China.
But there was no expectation of further progress in this area after China’s announcement on Friday that it was slightly widening the range its currency could move against the dollar in a single day from 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent. Critics were unimpressed by the small widening of the currency band.
Washington state’s trade with China
China is one of the state’s three largest trading partners, buying not only Boeing Co. airplanes and Microsoft software, but also apples, wheat, timber, industrial machinery and medical equipment. Washington, in turn, buys a lot of Chinese footware, game parts, toys, furniture and other items. Last year, China’s president, Hu Jintao, visited Everett.
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