On July 19, 2017, the first round of China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue was held in Washington D.C., the US. The dialogue was co-chaired by Vice Premier Wang Yang, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross of the US.
Wang Yang expressed that launching China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue Mechanism is an important outcome from the Mar-a-Lago meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump, as well as a significant decision made by the two heads of state while holding the general direction of the development of bilateral relations. China and the US are each other’s largest trading partners and major sources of investment, and cooperation is the only right choice for both sides. Meanwhile, as the world’s top two economies, China and the US conduct good cooperation will benefit not only the enterprises and people of the two countries, but also the world. Just as President Xi Jinping said, “We have a thousand reasons to make China-US relations a success and no reason to make bilateral relations a failure”.
The US side expressed that the Comprehensive Economic Dialogue Mechanism launched on the basis of the consensus reached by the two heads of state during the Mar-a-Lago meeting is an important measure to promote bilateral economic and trade relations. During the first round of dialogue, both sides should not only discuss specific economic and trade issues between the two countries, but also focus on long-term strategic challenges. As the two largest economies in the world and pioneers leading global economic growth, the US and China share extensive common interests. The two sides should make joint efforts to maximize bilateral interests and push bilateral economic and trade relations for fairer, more balanced and sustainable development.
During the dialogue, both sides conducted in-depth discussions on bilateral trade and investment, the 100-Day Action Plan and One-Year Plan on economic cooperation, global economy and governance, macroeconomic policy and finance, agriculture and other topics, reaching extensive consensus.
Both sides agreed that the most important outcome of this round of dialogue is charting the course for China-US economic cooperation. The dialogue sticks to taking win-win cooperation as the basic principle of bilateral economic and trade relations, taking dialogue and negotiation as basic approaches to resolve disputes, and taking the maintenance of communication on major economic policies as the basic way to conduct dialogue and cooperation, which lay a solid foundation for future cooperation.
Both China and the US agreed that under joint efforts of the two countries, the 100-Day Action Plan on China-US economic cooperation has achieved significant progress, injecting fresh impetus into bilateral economic and trade cooperation, boosting people’s confidence in the development of China-US economic relations, and providing a template and a good demonstration effect for the economic cooperation between the two countries.
Discussing over the implementation of the One-Year Plan on economic cooperation, the two countries agreed to carry out cooperation in such fields as macro-economy, finance, trade, investment and global economic governance, to strive for early achievements. Both sides agreed to follow the principle of practicality and mutual benefit to further enrich and improve the One-Year Plan during cooperation process, so as to provide the economies of the two countries with a stable and predictable cooperation framework.
The two countries agreed to conduct constructive cooperation to shrink trade deficit. China and the US will expand cooperation in the service sector to make the pie of service and trade larger, and expand mutual investment to create a more open, equitable, transparent and convenient investment environment, as well as make greater efforts in promoting trade in high-tech products. Both sides will level up industrial cooperation to promote mutually beneficial cooperation in manufacturing, intensify communication and coordination on macro-economic policy to deepen practical cooperation in financial regulation and financial market development, and enhance cooperation in the G20 and other global economic governance platforms to advance the reform on the international economic and financial system, so as to promote the robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive development of the world economy.
Both China and the US believed that the dialogue is innovative, practical and constructive, which not only explores on the overall, long-term and strategic topics concerning China-US economic cooperation, but focuses on specific issues the society concerns about. The dialogue has served the purpose of deepening mutual understanding, enhancing mutual trust and expanding consensus, and laid a solid foundation for both countries to further carry out long-term and stable cooperation.