Photo: China’s Ministry of Commerce

China is willing to strengthen economic and trade ‌cooperation with the US, China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said during a meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, according to a press release on the official website of Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Friday.

Wang on Thursday met with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) held in Yaounde, capital of Cameroon. The two sides held in-depth exchanges on China-US economic and trade relations, and multilateral and regional economic cooperation, according to the MOFCOM’s statement.

Wang noted that economic and trade ties should continue to serve as the ballast stone and propeller of China-US relations, rather than a stumbling block or a point of conflict. 

“The two sides should jointly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state at their Busan meeting and during their phone calls, properly handle the relationship between competition and cooperation and between the past and the future, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, avoid vicious competition, maintain close communication, ‘look forward’ together, and promote healthy, stable and sustainable development of bilateral economic and trade relations,” Wang said.

Wang stressed that China is willing to strengthen multilateral and regional economic and trade cooperation with the US, jointly advance WTO reform, help the WTO’s 14th Ministerial Conference achieve practical outcomes, and support positive results at APEC and the G20 meetings. 

During the meeting, Wang also expressed serious concerns regarding US Section 301 investigations against several economies, including China, over the so‑called “overcapacity” and alleged failure to ban products linked to forced labor.  

For his part, Greer said that over the past year the US and China have carried out constructive economic and trade consultations and maintained close communication and cooperation. The US is willing to work with China, guided by the leaders’ consensus, to strengthen dialogue, promote sustained and stable bilateral economic and trade relations, and achieve mutually beneficial outcomes in the economic and trade arena. The US is also willing to strengthen communication and exchanges with China under the WTO and regional frameworks, he said.

Global Times