SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: Thank you. Thank you, Secretary Paulson.
Intellectual property and market access remain at the top of our agenda every time we meet with Chinese officials. Improving protection and enforcement of intellectual property as you well know is really at the top of the list of concerns for our companies to do business in China. The Chinese have passed tougher laws. Now is the time for tough enforcement of those laws, and we had conversations on that.
We also need better market access across a range of industries to continue to drive competition. We believe, and we have discussed, and I believe the Chinese officials understand this, competition will sharpen Chinese industry while giving U.S. companies the opportunity to bring the goods and services to millions of Chinese consumers. We agree that accelerating discussions to develop tourism – this will build on the announcement Secretary Peters has made. Technology, trade, and transparency were also high on the agenda. U.S. high technology exports to China were up 44 percent in 2006 to $17.7 billion. We explained steps that we will take to facilitate such exports to trusted civilian customers in China while maintaining our national security guidelines. We also discussed with our Chinese counterparts ways to increase the transparency of China’s rule-making process.
We listened to China’s concerns about a recent decision to apply countervailing duties and confirmed our position and our firm commitment to use tools at our disposal to enforce fair competition. We welcome China as a responsible member and an important contributor to the global economy, and we look forward to working together to achieve a level playing field for all of us.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
