Commerce Secretary Backs Greater Trade With China
Commerce Secretary Barbara H. Franklin and a Chinese vice minister for trade appeared jointly at a press conference here Friday in a display of official high-level friendship unseen since the 1989 crackdown on China’s pro-democracy movement.
Franklin spoke strongly in favor of increased trade, stressing the importance of expanding U.S. exports to China. Generally peaceful world conditions and a recently signed bilateral market access agreement, she said, augur well for development of closer Sino-U.S. economic ties.
“We’ve signed the market access agreement on Oct. 10,” Franklin noted. “We have every intention of implementing it to the fullest, and our Chinese friends, we believe, do; and we want to make sure that that does in fact happen.”
Franklin said President Bush’s decision to send her delegation to China was a direct result of the signing of the market access agreement, under which China promised to dismantle various trade barriers, and the earlier signing of an agreement on protection of intellectual property rights.
“We want to capitalize on these two agreements and push for more American business,” Franklin said. “And that is the reason the decision was made to reconvene the JCCT (the Sino-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade) and in effect lift the sanctions on that kind of high-level contact in the commercial context. . . . I think that American business is very interested in the Chinese market.”
Tong Zhiguang, vice minister of foreign economic relations and trade, said the two days of trade discussions “proved these meetings are highly necessary and productive, constructive.”
Tong said a signing ceremony, conducted in the middle of the press conference, for the sale to China of more than $10 million of AT&T; digital switching equipment was “one step in the right direction. . . . I’m sure many new big and small commercial contracts will be signed in the future, because our economies are highly complementary.”
The U.S. trade deficit with China last year was $13 billion. This year’s deficit was already close to $15.5 billion as of the end of October. Such large deficits, Franklin said, “cannot be sustained.”
Franklin noted that on Thursday, Seattle-based Boeing Co. formally announced that China Southern Airlines will purchase six planes in a deal valued at $800 million. This and other recently concluded purchases form “a great message for China to send to our Congress and our country,” Franklin said.
Franklin said her discussions with Chinese officials had also produced results in four areas:
* The two sides will set up a “new working group on business development,” with a mandate to promote cooperation in fields such as energy, telecommunications and transportation.
* A Sino-U.S. seminar program will be renewed, focusing on subjects such as legal issues, finance and insurance, in an attempt to “help China find ways to develop an appropriate legal environment that would improve the business climate for foreign representative offices.”
* The two sides will seek agreement on rules for U.S. export of high-technology items that face export restrictions because of potential military applicability.
* Talks on a bilateral investment treaty will be resumed.
Franklin, in response to questions, said the issue of human rights “was raised with the appropriate officials” during her talks, and that there was “a constructive discussion.” She declined to provide details.
