WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. trade officials were pushing for greater access to China's telecommunications sector in high-level talks Tuesday.
The U.S. wants the Chinese government to open up its planned distribution of third-generation mobile-phone licenses to international technology standards and to further ease foreign-ownership restrictions in the sector, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told reporters in a conference call.
"We are concerned that at this point, the one standard that does exist is a domestic Chinese standard, and we believe that they should open it up to enable other technology-neutral approaches to telecom standards," he said.
Chinese regulators plan to issue 3G licenses once a restructuring of the country's telecom sector is complete.
Gutierrez said he will also push the Chinese government to go further in easing foreign-ownership restrictions in the telecom sector, after reducing capitalization requirements to around $146 million from over $220 million over the weekend.
Gutierrez, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer were hosting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan for the annual meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, or JCCT, in Yorba Linda, Calif.
Gutierrez said they had "very open, candid meetings" in the morning and were set to have further discussions in the afternoon.
Schwab said a broad number of issues will be discussed, including agricultural trade, food safety and trade barriers in goods and services.
"The idea is to address them in a constructive manner where solving problems now will lower the chances of needing to litigate later," she said.
Schafer said there won't be any agreement on opening up China's markets to U.S. beef during the meeting, with plans to hold technical group discussions on the dispute in the near future.
Trade relations between the two economic rivals continue to be marked by a combination of conflict and cooperation. At the semi-annual Strategic Economic Dialogue in June, held in Annapolis, Md., the two sides agreed to launch talks on a bilateral investment agreement.
However, the Bush administration has continued to impose trade duties and file World Trade Organization cases against China, while trying to keep Congressional efforts to pass more punitive trade remedies at bay.
During the last trade meeting in Beijing last December, the two countries signed agreements to ensure the safety of imports of food, feed, drugs and medical devices to the U.S.
Deals were also made covering trade in high-tech goods, U.S. exports to smaller Chinese cities and cooperation on biofuels, among others.
-By Tom Barkley, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9275; tom.barkley@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 16th September 2008
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