President Bush says he wants to see Chinese President Hu Jintao address key economic issues when he visits the White House next week. Mr. Bush says steps must be taken to correct the imbalance in U.S.-China trade.
President Bush says he hopes the Chinese leader will come to Washington prepared to take action that will ease long-standing trade frictions. "He is coming into a country where there's over a $200 billion trade deficit, and a lot of Americans are wondering where's the equity in trade," he said.
Mr. Bush points to two areas in particular that he says should be addressed. He says China's currency is undervalued, creating an unfair export advantage. And he says President Hu must do more to insure copyrights and patents are protected. "It's very important for him to make a declaration on international property rights -- IPR. It's difficult for a nation that likes to trade, like ours, to go into a country uncertain as to whether or not patents will be protected, or product will be protected from copy," Mr. Bush said.
The President told a group of foreign policy students that trade will be high on the agenda when Hu Jintao comes to the White House next Thursday April 20 for the first time as China's president. He said human rights concerns, Taiwan and multilateral issues, such as North Korea, will also be discussed.
A group of top economic policy makers from the United States and China is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss many of the economic concerns that will come up at the White House. The group, formally known as the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, was created about two decades ago to ease trade frictions between Washington and Beijing.