WASHINGTON — The United States and China, concluding high-level economic talks, agreed to launch negotiations on an investment treaty that holds out the promise of greatly expanded opportunities for U.S. companies in China.
The countries also pledged greater cooperation to deal with energy shortages and global pollution.
The agreements were announced Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who said he believed the initiatives would produce “significant progress” on two shared priorities of both nations.
The announcement on the investment negotiations and the 10-year cooperative agreement on energy and the environment came as the two countries concluded two days of talks aimed at defusing simmering economic tensions.
Paulson held a joint news conference in Treasury’s ornate Cash Room with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan to wrap up the fourth round of a series of talks known as the Strategic Economic Dialogue.
Paulson said the cooperative agreement would allow the two countries to address “some of the most important and difficult challenges facing our nations and the world today — energy security, environmental sustainability and climate change.”
The announcement Wednesday represented a fleshing out of details of an agreement that was initially announced at the last round of talks in Beijing in December. Paulson said the framework would focus on five major areas: electricity, air, water, transportation and conservation of forest and wetland ecosystems.
The decision to pursue an investment treaty with China offers the prospect of dismantling barriers that U.S. companies face in their efforts to do business in China.
Administration officials stressed that the negotiations were expected to be lengthy and intense. It took 17 months of preliminary discussions to begin the negotiations.
“The unfair price advantage that the undervalued (Chinese currency) gives Chinese firms has forced many American companies to declare bankruptcy or even go out of business, harming our workers, families and middle class,” said a letter sent to the administration by a bipartisan group of 11 senators, including Democrats Barack Obama, Debbie Stabenow and Chuck Schumer and Republicans Jim Bunning, Olympia Snowe and Elizabeth Dole.
Wang on Tuesday urged patience as China implements reforms. He cautioned that the two countries must avoid “complicating and politicizing economic issues.” The Chinese have grown concerned about a number of bills in Congress that would impose sanctions on China unless it moves more quickly to let its currency rise against the dollar.
