Ease export restrictions
Chinese President urges US:
US: President Hu Jintao has urged the United States to ease
restrictions on hi-tech exports to China after Beijing and Washington
signed $45 billion in trade deals during his US visit.
“China wishes to work with the United States to fully tap our
cooperation potential in fiscal, financial, energy, environmental,
infrastructure development and other fields,” Hu said in a speech to
political and business leaders in Chicago Thursday.
“We hope the United States will work in the same spirit and relax its
control on high-tech exports to China as soon as possible in order to
boost its exports to China.”
Hu flew to Chicago after meeting with President Barack Obama and
political and business leaders in Washington and attending a lavish
state dinner on Wednesday.
Obama facing domestic suspicions that China has ridden roughshod over
trade rules and US manufacturers stressed at a joint press conference
the 45 billion dollars in trade deals would support 235,000 US jobs.
But he also insisted Wednesday on a “level playing field” for US
companies, referring to disputes that have often bubbled to the surface
as China’s economic clout has grown.
Hu echoed those words in his speech at a Chicago reception Thursday
evening. “We hope the US side will provide a level playing field for
Chinese companies pushing to invest in the United States so that they
will have more opportunities to contribute to the development of the US
economy,” he said through an interpreter. Hu also urged greater
cooperation on trade.
“We believe that when trade issues arise between China and the United
States the two sides should seek a proper solution through candid
consultations on an equal footing and in a spirit of mutual respect,” he
said.
“Both China and the United States are major trading nations and
benefit from free trade. Our two countries should play an exemplary role
in building and improving the global trading regime, advancing the Doha
round negotiations and rejecting protectionism.” Top US lawmakers said
earlier Thursday they had pressed Hu on problems with rampant
intellectual property theft during a meeting on Capitol Hill.
House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Hu “admitted that
they weren’t as far along as they would they would like to be, and maybe
came to the game late, but indicated that they were hard at work in
trying to meet the expectations of the global economy.”
lawmakers also charge that Beijing keeps its currency — and thereby
its exports — artificially cheap, hurting their US competitors at a time
of deep US worries about historically high unemployment. CHICAGO,
Friday, AFP |