A Joint Fact Sheet on Strengthening US-China Economic Relations was issued on Thursday. The full text is as follows:

Joint Fact Sheet on Strengthening US-China Economic Relations

Building on President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping's shared commitment to building a new model of major country relations, both countries affirm their commitment to practical cooperation for the benefit of our two economies and to address global economic challenges. The United States and China reached the following outcomes on energy and climate change, innovation, and food and drug safety, under the framework of the Economic Track of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED). The United States and China further reaffirm their commitment to implement fully the concrete measures pledged by each country during the Economic Track of the S&ED, in order to further support strong domestic and global growth, promote open trade and investment, enhance international rules and global economic governance, and foster financial market stability and reform.

Strengthening Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change

Building on the climate accord announced by the two Presidents at Sunnylands, and the S&ED in July 2013, the United States and China affirm the importance of deepening cooperation to address climate change, reduce local air pollution, transition to a low carbon energy economy, and strengthen the resilience of global energy markets. Recognizing the significant and mutual benefits of intensified action and cooperation on energy and climate change, including enhanced energy security, a cleaner environment, both the United States and China affirm the commitments below.

The United States and China reaffirm the importance of the US-China Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) as a means for enhancing bilateral cooperation on climate change, and both sides commit to devote significant effort and resources to the five initiatives launched under this framework, including Energy Efficiency, Smart Grids, Greenhouse Gas Data Collection and Management, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS), and Heavy Duty and Other Vehicles, in order to see concrete results by the 2014 Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

To help accelerate progress on the US-China Climate Change Working Group Heavy-Duty and Other Vehicles initiative, the United States and China commit to implement and enforce their current schedules for implementation of low-sulfur fuel and for motor vehicle emissions standards. Both sides also commit to work together to help China design and implement China VI vehicle emissions standards as soon as practical, strengthen communication in heavy-duty vehicle fuel efficiency standards to reduce greenhouse gas emission, promote the implementation of clean action plans for heavy-duty diesel vehicles, and explore ways to design and implement the clean action plans for non-road motor vehicles and supporting diesel engines, which would reduce PM2.5 emissions and would have substantial air quality and climate benefits. The United States commits to provide technical assistance to achieve these goals and continue to provide technical assistance on regional air quality management and modeling, including emissions from mobile sources.

The United States and China reaffirm their commitment to implement the consensus reached by Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping on hydrofluorocarbons from June 8, 2013, and September 6, 2013.

Both the United States and China emphasize the importance of the multilateral climate change agreement that is currently being developed for completion at the Paris Conference in 2015. Recognizing their significant roles in this regard, the two sides intend to maintain close contact throughout the negotiations, including through leader-level discussions, consulting on areas of convergence as well as divergence and working bilaterally and with other countries to bring about a successful outcome.

The United States and China are to enhance transparency in the energy sector, including to increase cooperation on energy market transparency. The US Energy Information Administration commits to share expertise in gathering and distributing energy data. China is to develop the capacity to publish more complete public energy statistics on a more frequent basis, and enable stronger cooperation with the Joint Organizations Data Initiative. The United States and China are to cooperate on strategic petroleum reserves, through information exchanges on policies, management, and technologies and through annual technical meetings of US and China strategic petroleum reserve authorities.

The United States and China note the exceptional importance of China accelerating the development of its natural gas sector and unconventional gas resources, and recognize the positive impact shale gas development in China can have for Chinese and global energy markets. China welcomes participation in shale gas exploration and development, including by domestic and international private businesses and investors. The United States commits to engage with China on technical, standards, and policy cooperation, to facilitate the improvement of China's regulatory frameworks, so as to promote the sound and rapid development of China's shale gas exploration and development. The two sides commit to promote technological innovation, environmental supervision, and resource regulation in the shale gas sector and encourage the success of shale gas development in the two countries, so as to jointly promote responsible development and utilization of unconventional gas resources such as shale gas globally, and safeguard energy supply security and energy market stability.

The United States respects China's growing energy needs and economic concerns, especially in crude oil trade and investment. Both sides reiterate their commitment to work together on our shared goal of secure and well-supplied energy markets.

The United States commits to inform China about the statutory process required by the Natural Gas Act (NGA) which governs the evaluation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export applications, to FTA countries and to non-FTA countries such as China. The NGA directs the US Department of Energy to evaluate LNG export applications to non-FTA countries, applying the same rules in every case. To date, one final and four conditional license approvals have been granted to export LNG to non-FTA countries.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is currently evaluating pending applications on a case-by-case basis. The DOE is to keep the National Energy Administration of China informed of the status of the process.

The United States commits to actively encourage the export of technologies and equipment related to oil and gas exploration and development to China. Accordingly, the United States commits to process and decide upon in a timely manner, specific requests for deep-water oil and gas and shale gas exploration and development-related technology and equipment for civilian end users and civilian end uses that China wishes to procure that may be subject to export controls once the United States receives all necessary information required under the Export Administration Regulations.

The United States and China commit to undergo fossil fuel subsidy peer reviews under the G-20 process, and rationalize and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption over the medium term, while providing targeted support for the poorest.