Top US and Chinese officials said on Wednesday they had made progress on beef, software and other bilateral trade irritants, reducing some friction ahead of a presidential summit next month. "The understandings that we reached today will help to protect American jobs and bolster America's competitiveness and help to grow our economy," US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said at the conclusion of two days of talks.
Beef exporters hailed Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan's statement that China, in accordance with scientific principles and quarantine standards, would "resume the imports of American beef, both deboned and bone-in, under the age of 30 months." Its market has been closed to US beef since 2003, when the first case of mad cow disease was found in the United States. But some other countries, including South Korea, already buy US beef with the 30-month age limit.
Reopening the Chinese market could mean "about $200 million in annual beef business," said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the US Meat Export Federation. US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said a US team would travel to China in early January for technical talks on a staged reintroduction of US beef into the market.
He also welcomed a Chinese decision to lift a ban on poultry from in Idaho and Kentucky, also imposed because of disease concerns. The announcements came at the conclusion of the 21st US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, an annual bilateral forum to resolve trade irritants. Wang also promised China will actively fight copyright piracy by promoting greater use of legal software, and will submit a revised offer to join the World Trade Organisation's government procurement pact, he said.
"We expect to see concrete and measurable results on issues like intellectual property rights, including increased purchases and use of legal software in China," Kirk said. The two sides signed seven agreements, including one to promote co-operation and information sharing regarding Chinese investment in the United States. Other pacts covered inspection and quarantine procedures for soybeans, energy grid standards, water monitoring and trade development programs.
US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said he expected further, broad trade deals when Chinese President Hu Jintao comes to Washington in January. Some US industry officials expect Hu to be accompanied by a large delegation of Chinese businesses announcing purchases of US goods potentially worth tens of billions of dollars.