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Amid tense trade ties, US officials visit China
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-02 09:28

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez arrived in Beijing on Thursday for a three-day visit to try to ease tensions in a growing trade row over surging textile exports from China.

U.S. imports of clothing from China have risen dramatically since Jan. 1, when a decade-old international quota system was phased out as the result of a 1994 world trade deal.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez delivers a speech in Beijing June 2, 2005. Gutierrez arrived in Beijing for a tree-day visit to try to ease tensions in a trade row over textile exports from China. [Reuters]

Under pressure from the domestic textile industry, the administration of US President Bush has put emergency import curbs on trousers, shirts, underwear and cotton yarn from China.

China has called the U.S. move, and similar restrictions by the European Union, unjustified and in violation of World Trade Organization rules. In retaliation it said it would scrap export tariffs on 81 textile products.

The Bush administration is under pressure from Congress to reverse the huge U.S. trade deficit with China, which reached a record $162 billion last year.

China's long-running practice of pegging its yuan currency at around 8.28 to the dollar has also angered many lawmakers, who charge it is an unfair trade practice.

China agreed when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 to let member countries impose emergency import restrictions on its clothing and textile shipments to prevent "market disruption."

China's official Xinhua news agency quoted local analysts on Thursday as saying the Gutierrez visit could help to cool the trade friction.

US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, shown here on May 3, arrived in Beijing on Thursday to discuss a simmering trade row over booming textile exports that have led Washington to reimplement trade quotas.[AFP/File]

"Though the parties appear to be tough, the trade dispute is far from a trade war," said Zhang Hanlin, director of the Research Institute on the World Trade Organization with China's University of International Business and Economics.

But international trade lawyers in the United States have said there was little chance the two sides would reach any deal that would prevent the United States from imposing quotas at this point.

Chinese senior officials, including Vice Premier Wu Yi and Commerce Minister Bo Xilai were set to meet or hold talks or with him during his three-day stay in Beijing.

U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman will join Gutierrez for talks on Saturday with Wu.

Portman is expected to push for action to reduce trade in fake and pirated goods during his visit to Asia this week.

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