BNA: White House Announces U.S.-China SED On Sidelines of G-20 Financial Summit
After Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Obama met April 1 on the sidelines of the G-20 financial summit in London, the White House announced that the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue(SED) would meet in Washington, D.C., this summer.
Obama also accepted an invitation from Hu to visit China in the second half of 2009, the White House said in a release.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will chair the dialogue as special representatives of president, with Clinton chairing the strategic track and Geithner chairing the economic track. Clinton's counterpart will be Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Geithner's counterpart for the economic track will be Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, the release said.
The SED meeting will take place once a year in alternate capitals, according to a joint statement issued by Clinton and Geithner. Clinton and Geithner said they looked forward to working with their Chinese counterparts to enhance the welfare of citizens in both countries.
Under the Bush administration, the high-level Strategic Economic Dialogue met twice a year. The meetings were credited with providing an even keel for addressing U.S.-China relations amid rising trade frictions-including U.S. criticisms of undervaluation of the Chinese currency. Some experts have said, however, that the dialogue did little to advance U.S. objectives in the U.S.-China relationship.
The White House in its release said that the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) would also continue to advance cooperation on economics and trade.
Points of Agreement at G-20
The White House also said Obama and Hu had an extensive exchange on U.S.-China relations and pledged to work together to help the world economy return to strong growth and strengthen the international financing system so a crisis of the same magnitude never occurs again.
Obama said once economic recovery is firmly established, the United States would act to cut the U.S. fiscal deficit in half to a sustainable level. Hu emphasized China's commitment to strengthen and improve macroeconomic control, expand domestic demand and consumer demand, and ensure relatively fast economic development.
They committed to resist protectionism and ensure sound and stable U.S.-China trade relations, and support global trade investment flows that benefit all.
They also agreed that international financial institutions should have more resources to help emerging markets and that there was a need for sweeping changes in the governance structure of international financial institutions so as better reflect the growing weight of dynamic emerging market economies in the global system.
The list of topics addressed by Obama and Hu also included counterterrorism, law enforcement, science and technology, education, culture and health, nonproliferation, international security, military-to-military relations, and settlement of conflicts, and energy and the environment.
Business Groups Pleased
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S.-China Business Council, and the financial services group Engage China Coalition, welcomed the White House announcement.
"There is no question that the new Strategic and Economic Dialogue will be a critical forum to forge common solutions that can return the global economy to prosperity and addressed shared geopolitical challenges," U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J. Donohue said.
The Chamber urged a results-oriented dialogue that resolves pressing issues in the commercial relationship between the two countries and said the new dialogue, combined with the JCCT, would substantially bolster cooperation between the two nations.
The U.S.-China Business Council said that it was pleased that the administration will quickly begin a high-level, comprehensive dialogue with China. The Engage China coalition said that current global crisis underscored the interconnectivity of the U.S. and Chinese economies and the clear value of continuing a high-level dialogue between the nations.
By Amy Tsui