Chamber Welcomes China Trade Progress: Seeks Concrete Steps

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce welcomed the result of today's U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting, but added that China's commitments must be followed by concrete, verifiable steps.

"The meeting is not the end in itself," said Myron Brilliant, Chamber vice president for Asia. "We are very pleased with the public statements of Vice Premier Wu Yi that intellectual property rights protection will be a priority and that other U.S. commercial concerns, including in technology standards, will be addressed, but American business will ultimately be judging the results."

Key outcomes included Chinese pledges to carry out an action plan to enforce intellectual property rights and to address U.S. concerns about implementation of its trading and distribution rights commitments. China announced it would consult with international standards bodies in the development of its wireless encryption standards and agreed to a principle of technology neutrality in third generation standards to foster competition. In addition, the two countries made progress on a number of issues of interest to specific industries such as maritime and express delivery services.

The Chamber, which recently launched an intellectual property rights protection campaign, was pleased by China's acknowledgment of its need to address these challenges.

"If carried out effectively, with a serious commitment of resources at all levels of the Chinese government, we could see long-overdue progress in intellectual property rights protections," said Brilliant. "We're pleased that the U.S. and Chinese governments plan to consult and cooperate on enforcement strategies and want to see the private sector involved in these efforts."

The Chamber is doing its part to further the dialogue between the two countries by hosting a U.S.-China Business Dialogue on April 22 that will include members of the senior Chinese business delegation accompanying Vice Premier Wu Yi and representatives of prominent U.S. companies doing in business in China. The forum will be chaired by Dan Christman, Chamber senior vice president for international, and John Chen, Chamber board member and Sybase Chairman, CEO, and President.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses of every size, sector and region.

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