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trampoline act...
Mr. Geithner lobbied against Chinese government procurement rules that give preference to products with intellectual property developed in China. American businesses, particularly in technology, complain that this handicaps them and deprives China of state-of-the-art products.
“Innovation flourishes best when markets are open, competition is fair, and strong protections exist for ideas and inventions,” he said.
The Chinese have their pet issues as well: Beijing is pushing for the United States to loosen controls on exports of high-technology equipment with potential military applications. A raft of questions from reporters for state-run Chinese media organizations suggested a coordinated campaign.
If the United States seemed likely to leave Beijing with many of its wishes unfulfilled, there was one notable difference in this year’s meeting compared to the one last year in Washington: the American economy is growing again, which gave Mr. Geithner a rare chance to crow a bit.
Rather than identify the United States with the troubled economies of Europe, Mr. Geithner said America was holding its own with the big emerging economies like Brazil, India, and China.
- By Gus Leonisky at 26 May 2010 - 6:19pm
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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advantage wearing thin...
US politicians have repeated threats to impose trade sanctions on China if it continues to refuse to revalue its currency, the yuan.
Both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee warned US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that their patience was wearing thin.
Mr Geithner said China's stance was impeding global economic reforms.
The US has long complained that Beijing keeps the yuan undervalued against the US dollar to gain a trade advantage.
Some analysts argue the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40%.
Senator Charles Schumer, a leading Democrat, said he was confident a bill imposing sanctions on China would be passed successfully if needed.
"The issue here is not US protectionism but China's flouting of the rules of free trade," he said
US trade deficit widened
The US trade deficit widened to a 16-month high in April, as both imports and exports fell slightly.
According to the Commerce Department's data the total monthly deficit was $40.3bn (£27.5bn), up 0.6% from March.
Exports fell 0.7% from the previous month to $148.8bn, slightly faster than the 0.4% drop in imports to $189.1bn.
The figures also showed that the trade deficit with China widened by 14.3% to $19.3bn, which is the highest level since November last year.
Earlier, China had reported a higher-than-expected trade surplus for May, which was seen as giving ammunition to those in the US who argue the Chinese yuan is undervalued.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, speaking on Thursday to the US Senate Committee on Finance, said global economic reforms were being impeded by China's refusal to revalue its currency.
He told the US Senate Committee on Finance that distortions caused by China's stance were "an impediment to the global rebalancing we need".
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