U.S., China talk trade amid massive imbalance

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Beijing is more concerned about the dollar’s decline, which Chen said has threatened to push up prices of strategic goods such as gold and oil. That would damage countries like China, which maintain giant U.S. dollar-denominated foreign currency reserves, Chen said.

“That’s why I sincerely wish to see a scenario where the U.S. economy strengthens and the U.S. dollar strengthens,” said Chen, who is expected to become commerce minister soon.

The dollar has fallen sharply against major currencies this year, sinking to a record low against the euro in late November and sliding nearly 7 percent against the Japanese yen, 10 percent versus the Indian rupee and 14 percent against the Canadian dollar.

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China announced Tuesday that its global trade surplus totaled $26.28 billion in November, showing continued strong foreign demand for low-cost Chinese goods despite a string of product recalls on items ranging from toys to tires.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez appeared to dismiss Wu’s call for lifting high-tech export limits, saying the sector accounted for a “minuscule amount” of trade. While China is currently the fastest growing market for U.S. exports, we “clearly need more” market access, he said.

The meetings, which close Thursday, followed a similar forum in Beijing on Tuesday that produced wide-ranging agreements intended to boost Chinese tourism in the U.S., tighten safeguards for Chinese products and open mid-sized Chinese cities to American imports.

The earlier talks also began contentiously, with Gutierrez saying Wu expressed “very strongly” her displeasure with a recent case on intellectual property rights that the U.S. took to the World Trade Organization.

Gutierrez on Wednesday called on China to end its annual quota on foreign film imports, following reports — denied by Chinese officials — that Beijing was taking new steps to shut overseas movies out of its markets.

“The problem is that there is a limit and we would like to get that lifted,” he said.

China generally limits foreign film imports to about 20 per year to protect domestic film makers. Last week, the Hollywood trade magazine Variety reported that China was banning all Hollywood movies for three months. Chinese officials responsible for film imports said they had received no such instructions.

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