While meeting visiting US Treasury Secretary John Snow in Beijing yesterday, Premier Wen Jiabao said economic and trade ties between their countries were generally good and that existing issues can be settled.

Snow and his delegation arrived in China last Tuesday.

Briefing the US visitors on China's economic development, Wen said its enormous domestic market promoted its economic growth by relying mainly on domestic demand.

He added that China continued to adhere to its policy of opening up, and would continue overseas cooperation to seek a better combination of expanding domestic demand and making rational use of overseas demand so as to promote the country's steady and rapid economic growth.

Wen said the right principles for solving bilateral economic and trade disputes should be that both sides, while taking into consideration the general situation and long-term interests, should respect each other, conduct consultations on an equal footing, enhance understanding and consensus through more dialogue and exchanges, and seek more common ground while shelving trivial differences.

Wen said China practiced a reciprocal opening up strategy, which serves both its interests and the promotion of common development. This was China's guideline in handling economic and trade ties with other countries, he said.

He said China does not intentionally seek a trade surplus, and that to balance its foreign trade and international payments is one of its crucial macroeconomic goals.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2005)