Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan (L) and US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez greet each other before the 19th session of the China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in a Los Angeles suburb, on Sep. 16, 2008. Senior officials of China and the United States gathered here on Tuesday to discuss various business and trade issues in order to seek ways to facilitate bilateral economic relations between the two countries. [Xinhua]

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan announced Tuesday that positive results had been achieved at a one-day China-U.S. trade meeting in Los Angeles, saying China stands ready to work with the U.S. to further expand bilateral economic and trade ties.

"China-U.S. economic relation is not only important for our two countries, but important for the whole world," Wang said at the end of the 19th session of the China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), which was held at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in a Los Angeles suburb.

As the world's biggest developing and developed countries respectively, China and the United States enjoy ever closer economic ties and ever solider foundation of bilateral cooperation, said the vice premier.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan (R) meets with US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez during the 19th session of the China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in a Los Angeles suburb, on Sep. 16, 2008. Senior officials of China and the United States gathered here on Tuesday to discuss various business and trade issues in order to seek ways to facilitate bilateral economic relations between the two countries. [Zhang Yan/Xinhua]

"The Chinese government has always been attaching great importance to consolidating and developing China-U.S. economic relations, and we have done a great deal of work in terms of promoting trade balance and strengthening intellectual property protection," said Wang.

The Chinese vice premier co-chaired the one-day meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab. Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer also attended the meeting.

Wang said the meeting has secured mutually beneficial win-win results, and would go a long way to promote bilateral cooperation and create a good atmosphere for the next China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), which will be held later this year.

Like SED, the JCTT is a major cooperation mechanism between the two countries to resolve problems and disputes regarding investment and trade issues through dialogue and discussion, according to Wang.

Echoing Wang's remarks, Gutierrez described Tuesday's meeting as "a very robust session with very robust outcomes."

He said the U.S.-China economic relationship has been the fastest growing one that his country has ever seen.

"The U.S. is today China's No.1 export market, and China the U.S.' No. 3 export market. The relation is growing so fast, so quickly, probably unique in history. And we manage this," said Gutierrez.

He mentioned that the two-way trade volume between the two countries had grown to 380 billion dollars last year from only 4 billion dollars when the JCCT mechanism was initially established in 1983.