US Commerce Secretary Encouraged by Recent Talks in China

Evans : Good afternoon. Welcome everybody. I am happy to come by and report on a very successful trip to China. I have been here for four days now and have had a chance to go west. I have also spent the last couple of days in Beijing. I have had many productive meetings during my visit. In Beijing I had the opportunity to meet with the Vice Minister of Commerce Yu. I had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, Minister Ma. I had the chance this morning to meet with the Minister of Information Industries, Minister Wang. And, I had a very, very constructive over two-hour meeting yesterday afternoon with Premier Wen. We talked about the size of the trade deficit, the gap between exports and imports, and I got a strong commitment from the Premier that we are going to work very hard on closing the trade deficit gap between the United States and China.

As I said, I think it has been a very successful trip. I have been encouraged by the trip. I think that we clearly stated a number of our concerns. The number one concern that we have is making sure that we are creating the conditions for job creation and job security in our country, which means economic growth in our country. We believe Christian Louboutin Pumps that means jobs and job security all around the world. Let me stop there because I would be delighted to take a few questions.

Q: As far as my knowledge is concerned, the American consumers and companies also benefit from the US-China trade developed in recent years. So, how do you, after all , evaluate the relationship, the economic relationship, between the US and China? Do you think it's a zero sum game or a mutually beneficial relationship? Or, to put it another way, a positive sum game? By the way, when will the US government lift the limitations on the high-tech importations into China?

Evans: Let me take the second question first, on export limitation in the high-tech sector. China is the only country in the world, the only country in the world where we have difficulty in having access to the companies that are buying this high-technology equipment, what we would call end-use visits. As soon as we can get an end-use visit agreement in place so that we can tell the Congress of the United States and the American people that we are being provided access to visit the plants and the facilities and the businesses that are buying this high-tech equipment, I feel confident that it will improve the environment, improve the conditions for increasing high-technology trade between our two countries.

The first half of your question in terms of, do the American people benefit from trade with China - the answer to the question is, of course they do. We believe that an open trading system will benefit the entire global economy. But, the point we are making is how important it is for it to be fair trade, for it to be a level playing field where we are all playing by the same rules. It is awfully difficult to tell an American worker that he or she is on a level playing field with another company in another part of the world if that company is being subsidized by the government. We don't subsidize the private sector of our economy. So, it's about the fundamental principle of creating the conditions for job growth and job security, which Yves Saint Laurent Boots means economic growth which is dependent upon free trade and fair trade, creating the conditions for long-term economic growth so the strengthening economic partnership between the US and China/and the rest of the world can continue to grow and continue to add to the growth in the global economy. Q: What's the limit of the US patience on some of the WTO requirements? At what point do you file a complaint with the WTO and take this to court?

Evans- Well, I'm not going to speculate into the future. I want to leave here with a very positive message that we had constructive thoughts. I felt the commitment on the part of the leadership to deal with some of the trade issues that are of great concern to us. We have formed not just one but three additional working groups to deal with not only textiles but one that will deal specifically with subsidies. We have a working group that has been set up with the Ministry of Commerce where they are obligated under the WTO to identify where they are subsidizing certain sectors of their economy.