A senior US commerce official has acknowledged Beijing's efforts to open up the markets but said there are still issues to be addressed.

 

"China has honored its WTO commitments since 2001" and the two countries have an overall "positive relationship", Franklin Lavin, the US under secretary of commerce for international trade, told US entrepreneurs in China yesterday.

 

He said he is "generally optimistic" about the relationship between the two economies as there are "senior-level political commitments from both sides that they want to maintain the positive relations".

 

As a result of the Chinese government's massive efforts to narrow the trade gap with the United States, that country's exports to China increased by over 30 percent year-on-year in 2006.

 

Lavin also put forward a number of issues "challenging the commercial ties between the two economies".

 

He cited pharmaceuticals, steel and copyright protection, saying foreign businesses still faced obstacles and these were the main priorities for Washington. He claimed "trade barriers" in certain sectors made it difficult for US businesses to operate in China.

 

Lavin said the US needs to see some concrete results from the next session of the strategic economic dialogue, the highest-profile communication mechanism between the two countries chaired by Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, when the two sides next meet in Washington in May.

 

(China Daily March 30, 2007)