USA / FILE: Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi in U.S. for talks on currency, trade tensions

A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Wu Yi arrived in the United States on Monday (May 21) for two days of talks that will spotlight tensions over U.S. trade deficits with the Asian export giant. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson greeted the Chinese delegation. He will take Wu to Capitol Hill for closed-door meetings with U.S. lawmakers to try to give her a sense of the depth of concern over the trade imbalance. Lawmakers have threatened to propose legislation that could restrict some imports in an effort to whittle down a U.S. deficit with China that hit a record 233 U.S. billion dollars last year. Jeffrey Bader, a former diplomat with extensive experience working with the Chinese, believes it would be bad strategy for lawmakers to do more than threaten legislation. Bader said legislation could actually hurt U.S. efforts to urge their China to move faster to address the trade imbalance. "I think the pressure is fine but once you actually shoot the gun you lose your leverage." Bader is director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Before she left Beijing, Wu served notice that China is not about to be pushed into moving faster on reforms than it feels is healthy for its own economic development. Wu said any U.S. protectionist measures would be "irresponsible acts," an evident counter to Paulson's earlier warnings about what he termed "a clear sense of frustration" with China that its officials need to recognize swiftly.

ITN Source | May 22, 2007

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