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Amid tense trade ties, US officials visit China
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-02 09:28
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez arrived in Beijing on Thursday for a
three-day visit to try to ease tensions in a growing trade row over surging
textile exports from China.
U.S. imports of clothing from China have risen dramatically since Jan. 1,
when a decade-old international quota system was phased out as the result of a
1994 world trade deal.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez
delivers a speech in Beijing June 2, 2005. Gutierrez arrived in Beijing
for a tree-day visit to try to ease tensions in a trade row over textile
exports from China. [Reuters] | Under pressure from the domestic textile industry, the administration of US
President Bush has put emergency import curbs on trousers, shirts, underwear and
cotton yarn from China.
China has called the
U.S. move, and similar restrictions by the European Union, unjustified and in
violation of World Trade Organization rules. In retaliation it said it would
scrap export tariffs on 81 textile products.
The Bush administration is under pressure from Congress to reverse the huge
U.S. trade deficit with China, which reached a record $162 billion last year.
China's long-running practice of pegging its yuan currency at around 8.28 to
the dollar has also angered many lawmakers, who charge it is an unfair trade
practice.
China agreed when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 to let
member countries impose emergency import restrictions on its clothing and
textile shipments to prevent "market disruption."
China's official Xinhua news agency quoted local analysts on Thursday as
saying the Gutierrez visit could help to cool the trade friction.
![US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, shown here on May 3, arrived in Beijing on Thursday to discuss a simmering trade row over booming textile exports that have led Washington to reimplement trade quotas.[AFP/File]](xin_1906020210186951211615.jpg)
US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, shown
here on May 3, arrived in Beijing on Thursday to discuss a simmering trade
row over booming textile exports that have led Washington to reimplement
trade quotas.[AFP/File] | "Though the parties appear to be tough, the trade dispute is far from a trade
war," said Zhang Hanlin, director of the Research Institute on the World Trade
Organization with China's University of International Business and
Economics.
But international trade lawyers in the United States have said
there was little chance the two sides would reach any deal that would prevent
the United States from imposing quotas at this point.
Chinese senior officials, including Vice Premier Wu Yi and Commerce Minister
Bo Xilai were set to meet or hold talks or with him during his three-day stay in
Beijing.
U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman will join Gutierrez for talks on
Saturday with Wu.
Portman is expected to push for action to reduce trade in fake and pirated
goods during his visit to Asia this week.
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