Agence France Presse | March 24, 2004
China's Ministry of Commerce said Wednesday that senior US Department of Commerce officials are scheduled to arrive in Beijing this week for trade talks, expected to tackle a raft of sticky issues.
Undersecretary for International Trade Grant Aldonas and Deputy Assistant Secretary James Leonard will hold discussions with their Chinese counterparts on trade-related issues, a ministry spokesman said.
The official declined to give further details but the talks are expected to address growing trade rows between the two sides on textiles, semiconductors and intellectual property rights.
US officials have slapped China with a spate of trade restrictions in recent months amid complaints Beijing is not fully implementing its commitments since it joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001.
Ealier this month, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said that while some of the compliance problems faced by China were initially viewed as "growing pains", Beijing must do more to ensure it lives up to its WTO obligations.
The US has cited China for its lax enforcement of intellectual property rights and discriminatory tax policies -- "most blatantly" on semiconductors -- and new wireless encryption standards it says are intended to block market access for American companies.
Last week the US lodged the first WTO complaint filed against China by any member of the global trade body since Beijing joined in 2001.
US officials also claim market access problems in agriculture and financial services, charging that China uses so called "standards" to unfairly impede US exports.
Meanwhile, the US has also agreed to continue talks on a Washington proposal to impose quotas for Chinese exports of knitted fabrics, bras and dressing gowns after earlier talks on January 12 and March 3 failed to reach a resolution.Agence France Presse:
