WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. and Chinese officials said on Wednesday they had made progress on beef, software and other bilateral trade irritants, reducing some friction ahead of a presidential summit next month.
“The understandings that we reached today will help to protect American jobs and bolster America’s competitiveness and help to grow our economy,” U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said at the conclusion of two days of talks.
Beef exporters hailed Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan’s statement that China, in accordance with scientific principles and quarantine standards, would “resume the imports of American beef, both deboned and bone-in, under the age of 30 months.”
Its market has been closed to U.S. beef since 2003, when the first case of mad cow disease was found in the United States. But some other countries, including South Korea, already buy U.S. beef with the 30-month age limit.
Reopening the Chinese market could mean “about $200 million in annual beef business,” said Joe Schuele, a spokesman for the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said a U.S. team would travel to China in early January for technical talks on a staged reintroduction of U.S. beef into the market.
He also welcomed a Chinese decision to lift a ban on poultry from in Idaho and Kentucky, also imposed because of disease concerns.
The announcements came at the conclusion of the 21st U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, an annual bilateral forum to resolve trade irritants.
U.S. EXPECTS CONCRETE RESULTS
Wang also promised China will actively fight copyright piracy by promoting greater use of legal software, and will submit a revised offer to join the World Trade Organization’s government procurement pact, he said.
“We expect to see concrete and measurable results on issues like intellectual property rights, including increased purchases and use of legal software in China,” Kirk said.
The two sides signed seven agreements, including one to promote cooperation and information sharing regarding Chinese investment in the United States.
Other pacts covered inspection and quarantine procedures for soybeans, energy grid standards, water monitoring and trade development programs.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said he expected further, broad trade deals when Chinese President Hu Jintao comes to Washington in January.
Some U.S. industry officials expect Hu to be accompanied by a large delegation of Chinese businesses announcing purchases of U.S. goods potentially worth tens of billions of dollars.
Posts Related to US and China make progress on beef, software trade. Information and tips trick about US and China make progress on beef, software trade
US to hold pivotal trade talks with China and then EU
By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will hold high-level trade talks with China and the European Union this week, testing the Obama administration's ability to tear down barriers that impede U.S. exports and economic growth. The United States and China will cap a rocky year of trade relations with two days of meetings beginning on Tuesday. The United States on Thursday will then shift from transpacific to transatlantic relations for talks with ...
-
US Trade Officials To Press China On Counterfeiting
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. will press China next week to ensure that its recent crackdown on counterfeiters will produce meaningful and long-lasting results, a trade official said Friday. The six-month campaign China launched in October to beef up enforcement of intellectual property rights has won guarded praise of the U.S. government and business community. But frustrated that past pledges to curtail rampant piracy have fallen short, U.S. business groups and lawmakers plan to push ...
US to press China on counterfeiting
Recommend <!-- #var paragraph = content as Paragraph; #var textChunk = chunk as TextChunk; #// #// --> By Tom Barkley (Adds comments from government and industry officials, background) WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. will press China next week to ensure that its recent crackdown on counterfeiters will produce meaningful and long-lasting results, a trade official said Friday. The six-month campaign China launched in October to beef up enforcement of intellectual property rights has won guarded ...
-
Software Lobby Calls China Piracy Pledge ‘Incremental Progress’
Among the far-ranging agreements secured during Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to Washington this week was a commitment to crack down on the sale and distribution of pirated software and other intellectual property violations that U.S. firms have long pinned on China. But for one of the leading anti-piracy lobbies, the Business Software Alliance, China's assurances were at best a hopeful first step toward curbing a multi-billion criminal racket. "Software industry goals have been ...
-
China to search government computers for counterfeit software
The inspection is part of a new push by the Chinese government to tackle rampant software piracy in the country. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) estimated in 2009 that 79 percent of all software used on computers in the country was pirated.Microsoft also said it has filed a lawsuit against 10 companies in China for selling computers with pirated versions of its Windows operating system and other products pre-installed. "Computers pre-installed with unauthorized software have ...
