BEIJING-
The US and China discussed trade and business concerns Thursday — with currencies and property rights among the thorny issues on the agenda — as the world’s two biggest economies held wide-ranging annual talks.
“China and the United represent the greatest economic alliance trading partnership in the history of humankind and it is only going to grow,” US Secretary of State John Kerry told a meeting of bosses from top Chinese and American companies.
From small beginnings of about $2.5 billion in 1979 when formal diplomatic relations were established, annual trade between the two economic giants has now grown to a gargantuan $520 billion.
Direct foreign investment between the two has also ballooned, and last year for the first time the amount of investment flowing from China surpassed that from the United States.
“We want to do better,” the top US diplomat said.
But there have been a series of US-China trade disputes, while the United States has long insisted that the Chinese yuan, or renminbi, is artificially undervalued.
While the US has not branded China a currency manipulator, which could entail sanctions, it has complained that the weak yuan gives China an unfair trade advantage.
Kerry also highlighted strains over protecting intellectual property as well as concerns over sharing information technology.
“We need to make sure we’re protecting intellectual property rights, make sure we’re creating transparency in the regulatory process, make sure we are raising the bar for everybody in terms of the standards by which we do business,” Kerry said.
The CEOs of such companies as General Electric, Boeing, Fedex, Goldman Sachs and Silicon Valley Bank gathered for the working breakfast with counterparts from large Chinese firms including China State Construction Engineering Corporation, the Wanxiang Group, Dalian Wanda Group and the Shuanghui Group.-
