Chinese, US business leaders optimistic over trade

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Chinese, US business leaders optimistic over trade

Chinese and US business leaders agreed Wednesday in Beijing that the prospects for bilateral trade were very optimistic.

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Chinese and US business leaders agreed Wednesday in Beijing that the prospects for bilateral trade were very optimistic.

Wan Jifei, president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), China's largest trade promotion organization, said China kept opening its domestic market since its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.

"That provided huge business opportunities for the foreign business communities, including those from the United States," Wansaid during the US-China Business Dialogue.

Chinese and US economies were very complementary and healthy bilateral political relations ensured sound economic ties, Wan said.

President and chief executive of the US Chamber of Commerce Thomas J. Donohue said China had implemented its WTO commitments and he hoped those steps could be strengthened and expanded.

Donohue said he was pleased to see the growth of Chinese imports from the United States exceeded or equaled that of exportsin the first eight months of 2003.

The US side hoped to further enlarge exports to China to balance trade, Donohue added.

Statistics from Chinese Customs show that China-US trade hit 78.5 billion US dollars in the first eight months of this year, up 30.4 percent year-on-year.

China recorded 56.5 billion US dollars in exports and 22 billion US dollars in imports.

But US restrictions on exports of high-tech products, for whichChina has a huge demand, hindered the growth of China's imports from the United States, trade analysts said.

In 2002, China imported 82.8 billion US dollars worth of high-tech products, an increase of 29 percent year-on-year.

But the imports of such products from the United States reachedonly 4.1 billion US dollars, accounting for 4.9 percent of China'stotal imports of high-tech products.

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