China Tuesday criticised a series of anti-dumping measures taken by the United States and urged visiting US officials to resolve trade disputes through bilateral negotiations.
"We maintain that when conflict and disputes arise, we should resort to dialogue and discussions to solve them instead of such measures as anti-dumping investigations and other trade protection measures," foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.
"We don't think these will be conducive to the sound and healthy development of bilateral economic relations and trade."
Zhang specifically cited a US ruling announced last month which will impose anti-dumping duties of between 4.3 percent and 24.5 percent on some 13 Chinese television manufactures and up to 78 percent on other producers.
She made the statement as visiting US Secretary of Commerce Don Evans was in Beijing to meet senior Chinese leaders including Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice Premier in charge of the economy Zeng Peiyan and Commerce Minister Bo Xilai.
"China's position is that we attach importance to the sound and healthy development of trade between China and the US," Zhang said.
"We hope that both parties and both governments can promote bilateral economic and trade relations."
According to US statistics, bilateral trade reached 170 billion dollars in 2003 but China maintained a 124 billion dollar trade surplus.
In recent days, the two sides have accused each other of dumping practices, or exporting products at prices below their costs.
On Friday, the US slapped on duties of between 4.9 and 198 percent on some one billion dollars worth of imported Chinese wooden furniture.
China alleged in turn that the US-based Corning Inc was dumping "single-mode optical fibre" on the Chinese market and threatened action.