CPPCC session spokesman: Trade pact would benefit two nations, rest of world

The signing of a mutually beneficial trade agreement at an early date will not only benefit China and the United States, but also will be good for the world economy, a spokesman for China's top political advisory body said on Saturday.

The two countries have made substantial progress in their trade talks on specific issues such as technology transfers, protection of intellectual property rights, nontariff barriers, the service industry, agriculture and exchange rates, said Guo Weimin, spokesman for the second session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, at a news briefing.

The briefing was held in the leadup to the annual session of the CPPCC National Committee, which will open on Sunday.

The two nations will continue to strengthen communication in accordance with the guidance of the consensus reached by the two heads of state, and jointly advance the next-stage work, Guo said.

China and the United States concluded their seventh round of high-level trade negotiations in Washington on Feb 24, which generated positive progress after a months-old rift in bilateral trade.

Beijing and Washington share "more common interests than disputes, and more need for cooperation than friction", Guo said.

He added that experience has proved that the two countries stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. "Cooperation is the best option for the two sides," he said.

As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the world's two largest economies, Guo said, both countries assume especially important responsibility in safeguarding world peace and stability and promoting global development and prosperity while having extensive shared interests.

Guo said China-US relations are at a crucial stage and added that maintaining sound and steady development of bilateral relations conforms to the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples and also the universal expectations of the international community.

Both sides should make joint efforts to expand cooperation on the basis of mutual benefit, manage their differences based on mutual respect and advance bilateral ties on the basis of coordination, cooperation and stability so as to enable their cooperation to benefit the two countries and the world, Guo said.

Also on Saturday, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said in a statement that it was aware of the announcement of the Office of the US Trade Representative to postpone a planned tariff hike on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and keep the tariff rate at 10 percent until further notice.

The US government had planned to raise the 10 percent tariff imposed on the Chinese imports to 25 percent starting Saturday.

The tariff commission said it welcomes the step taken by the US.