BIZCHINA> Top Biz News
|
BIZCHINA> Top Biz News
|
|
Balanced growth is the goal
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-29 07:49 China and the US reached agreement on the need to work toward more balanced global growth once the economic crisis has ended, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said yesterday. China and US concluded talks aimed at narrowing differences on a wide range of economic and foreign policy issues. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on climate change and clean energy cooperation and issued a joint work plan to set the agenda for coordination between the two nations over the next several years. Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan voiced support for a key US goal that China shift to more domestic-led growth rather than rely on exports that drive up the US trade deficit. "China will focus on boosting domestic demand and in particular consumer demand," Wang said. China had implemented measures to stimulate domestic consumption and reduce dependence on exports even before the financial crisis hit last year. Wang said the US should treat Chinese enterprises investing in the US "equally" and ensure the security of Chinese assets in the US. He urged the US to relax its limit on high-tech exports to China.
He also said the two sides should abide by WTO rules and shun trade protectionism. Geithner was accompanied during the talks by National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, while the Chinese team included Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People's Bank of China. "We can build upon our joint response to the global financial crisis by continuing to provide constructive leadership and support for the institutions underpinning global financial stability," Geithner said.
"We are laying a stable foundation for cooperation on our long-term objectives," he said. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was leading a separate set of discussions on foreign policy concerns. Officials of both China and the US were striking a conciliatory tone, but that did not stop officials of both countries from posing pointed questions during closed-door discussions. China, worried about its huge investments in the US, quizzed US officials about America's soaring budget deficits, while the Obama administration pressed China on the need to rebalance its economy to focus more on domestic-led growth rather than relying on exports to the US. Officials from both nations played down the prospects for any breakthroughs this week on the major issues that separate the two nations, such as carbon emissions. Wang said China's attempts to create a more open economy would help US recovery efforts. "With the furthering of China's reform and more openness, China and the United States will have even closer economic cooperation and trade relations and the China-US relationship will surely keep moving forward," Wang said. Obama dispatched his top economic officials - Geithner, Summers, White House budget director Peter Orszag and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke - to try to reassure China that the US will not let deficits or inflation jeopardize the value of Chinese investments. US officials said the president's team told the Chinese that the US was committed to policies that would not fuel inflation. They stressed that the US has a plan to bring the deficit down once the economic crisis has been resolved. Bernanke, they said, discussed the Fed's exit strategy from the central bank's current period of extraordinary monetary easing, emphasizing it was being careful to guard against future inflation. China, which has the largest foreign holdings of US Treasury debt at $801.5 billion, has been expressing worries that soaring deficits could spark inflation or a sudden drop in the value of the dollar, thus jeopardizing their investments. Chinese officials said those concerns were raised during the talks. AP-Xinhua-China Daily (For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
|
