Some Americans overlook Chinese products, presuming they are inferior, or "junk." Others, especially investors, fear China's economic reforms could prove fleeting.

Several speakers recently tried to dispel such notions at the US-China Chamber of Commerce's third annual trade conference early last month in Chicago.

Hundreds of American professionals and senior corporate executives attended.

A Wal-Mart official told the conference the company had wanted to sell only American-made products in the 1980s, but that it had become one of the largest importers of Chinese products into the United States.

Wal-Mart started out in the United States as a family owned business that prided itself on selling only US-made products.

"The Chinese," he said, "make good products, and - depending on the manufacturer - I might choose a Chinese product over an American product."

Wal-Mart is also in China. It entered China in August 1996, when it opened its first Supercentre and SAM'S CLUB in Shenzhen.

Today, Wal-Mart operates 20 joint-venture stores in the country's several cities.

Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr., deputy US trade representative and former US ambassador to Singapore, told the conference China has become America's fastest-growing export market.

"Never in the history of humanity," he said, "has a trade relationship come so far so quickly."

Huntsman added China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will do for China economically what the Shanghai Communique has done for it politically over that past 30 years.

Speaking of the need to improve trade between China and the US, Huntsman said Americans will be "relentless in the pursuit of success."

The Bush administration, he said, is "committed to making the most of China's accession to the WTO."

He referred to trade and investment as the foundation of the overall Sino-US relationship, the "most important relationship we have in the world today."

Many conference participants admitted problems still exist. Though, most agreed if they had waited for everything to be perfect, they would never have gotten started.

Foremost on the minds of many Americans is whether there will be any changes in policies in China after the Party Congress this month, which could affect economic reforms and efforts to open the marketplace to other countries.

According to Huntsman, "all evidence suggests China is on a course of economic reform that will not be reversed."

Siva Yam told the conference American companies must do business in China in order to support the country, not to exploit the people.

Yam, president of the United States-China Chamber of Commerce (USCCC), stressed American companies must really "do their homework" to understand and succeed in the Chinese marketplace.

Americans must also remember, he said, that "over the years China has developed a lot of regulations to prevent its economy from being dominated by foreigners, which is a legacy of earlier colonial experiences."

The USCCC will host this month a trade mission to China.

The mission, aimed at helping participating American companies better understand the Chinese marketplace, will visit Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou and Beijing over 10 days.

The author is a performance analyst with a Toronto, Canada investment firm and a regular contributor to Business Weekly.