Sino-US relations can’t be hampered by trade frictions

BEIJING - A Commerce Ministry official in China has said trade frictions cannot hamper economic and trade relations between Beijing and Washington.

“China would like to work with the US to maintain bilateral economic relations’ stability. Stability is good for both countries. It reduces unemployment and creates prosperity,” the China Daily quoted He Ning, Director-General of the ministry’s Department of American and Ocean Affairs, as saying.

He further said that “stable and healthy economic relations could translate into huge benefits for both”, adding that Beijing is willing to take steps to make that happen.

Over the years, China has been continuing to blame America for its massive trade deficit with that country. The US even threatened to levy high duties on Chinese imports.

Recently, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the US would allow China more access to hi-tech American products and expand trade and investment opportunities in Washington provided American products are allowed into the Chinese market. Geithner said China’s policy of keeping the renminbi cheap “sets off a dangerous dynamic” that encourages other countries to follow suit and risks touching off a destructive competition for jobs and trade.

Eswar Shanker Prasad, a former economist with the International Monetary Fund who now teaches trade policy at Cornell University, said China’s recent moves to restrict access to its domestic economy have led American corporate leaders to press the Obama administration to take a tougher stance this time.

Meanwhile, American officials claimed that US President Barack Obama is likely to be more assertive with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, when the latter visits Washington later this week. (ANI)