US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on Monday he wanted to accelerate US export growth to China as Washington seeks to narrow a gaping trade imbalance between the two countries.
"The future should be focused on exporting to China as a way of improving our balance," Gutierrez told reporters in Beijing, where he was at the start of his fourth trip to China as the top US commerce official. In September, the overall US trade deficit shrank but its bilateral deficit with China widened, according to US figures issued last week.
Imports from China grew to a record $27.6 billion, and the US trade deficit with that country grew 4.6 percent to $23.0 billion. The year-to-date trade deficit with China reached $166.3 billion, staying at a pace to easily outrun last year's record of $202 billion.
But Gutierrez, accompanied by over two dozen US executives hoping to expand business in China, sought to highlight US export growth as the way to balance trade. "We judge by results, by the numbers we see, and I can tell you this year our exports to China are up on a year to date basis 34 percent, and that is up over last year, which was up 20 percent," he said.
In the nine months to the end of September, US exports to China totalled $40.2 billion, making China the United States' fourth largest export market. Washington has complained loudly and often to Beijing about what it says is a tilted playing field in trade, with China restricting investment and trade in some lucrative sectors, and commercial pirates producing a torrent of counterfeit DVDs, music discs and other copyrighted products.
Gutierrez has said that he wants Beijing to do more to address these complaints. "While China is more open than before, much progress must still be made to provide fair access to American exporters and businesses," he said in a statement issued before his arrival in Beijing.
CHINA WANTS TRADE BALANCE: Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai told Gutierrez on Monday that China was not deliberately fanning trade imbalances. "China does not pursue a large trade deficit with the United States, instead it will make efforts to realise a trade balance," Bo told him, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Gutierrez also said the initial signals from the Democratic leaders of the newly elected US Congress were positive on trade. "The initial signals and statements and comments that we have heard from Congress have been very positive from the standpoint of supporting trade," said Gutierrez.
"Obviously we have to ensure that that translates into meaningful results. We all have to be very aware that any steps that we take that would signal protectionism."
The executives accompanying Gutierrez include representatives of Westinghouse Electric, which has been pressing to win tenders for China's new generation of nuclear power plants, and Eli Lilly and Co, the pharmaceutical group. Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse was recently acquired by Japan's Toshiba Corp and was previously owned by British Nuclear Fuels.
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