BEIJING (AFP) – China is likely to sign import deals valued at up to 12 billion dollars with the United States next month in a bid to reduce its yawning trade surplus, state media said Wednesday.
The deals will be inked during a high-profile bilateral strategic economic dialogue in the United States in May, the China Daily reported, without giving any sources.
A proposed procurement delegation will cover a wide range of US products, from soybean and cotton manufacturing machinery to electronic goods, in its visit to Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, it said.
The deals are widely seen as part of the Chinese efforts to cut its huge trade surplus with the United States, which hit more than 230 billion dollars in 2006, according to US data.
The Commerce Ministry was not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP Wednesday.
When China’s President Hu Jintao visited the United States in April last year, Chinese enterprises sealed about 16 billion dollars in deals on products ranging from soybean to aircraft, the report said.
It said next month’s strategic economic dialogue, to be co-chaired by Vice-Premier Wu Yi and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is expected to be tense after Washington last week formally filed WTO complaints against China.
Beijing has said the US move to take China to the World Trade Organisation on copyright piracy and market access barriers would have “negative impact” on overall trade relations between the two.
