Premier Wen Jiabao said in Beijing Monday that China and the US should properly handle problems in their trade and economic cooperation through fair dialogue and consultation.
Wen made the remarks when meeting with US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, Trade Representative Robert Portman and Secretary of Agriculture Michael Johanns, who are here for a China-US trade and economic joint committee annual meeting.
"Trade and economic cooperation are important component parts of Sino-US relations and a concrete indication of the two countries' interests," Wen said.
"It has been proved that the development of Sino-US trade and economic ties has yielded tangible benefits for the people of the two countries and promoted the mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the US," he said.
China is the largest developing country and the US the largest developed one, Wen said. "Maintaining the steady and fast growth in the two economies will contribute to the world economy in an era of globalization."
"Closer trade and economic cooperation between the two countries will benefit the world economy and that is very significant," he said.
The Chinese premier urged the two countries to deal with bilateral trade and economic ties with regard to long-term benefits and from a global point of view.
"We two countries should respect and handle each other's concerns, properly deal with problems emerging in our cooperation through equal dialogue and friendly consultation and exert common efforts for the sound development of our trade and economic cooperation."
Gutierrez said the one-day annual meeting of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) is a good meeting and the two sides had a "very honest and frank" dialogue during the session.
It "reflected a growing and strengthening partnership" between the two countries, he said, noting such cooperation will be a "true model" for the world.
Portman said the JCCT meeting resulted in steady progress in many fields. Johanns said he was optimistic about the future development of US-China agricultural trade.
At JCCT meeting, involving Vice Premier Wu Yi and the US officials, were discussed a number of hot trade issues ranging from textile disputes to intellectual property rights protection.
Trade between the two countries has surged rapidly over the past years. In 2004, two-way trade hit US$169.6 billion, about 69 times that the figure in early 1979 when China and the US established full diplomatic relations.
The US is now China's second largest trading partner after the EU while China is the third largest of the US.
(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2005)
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