Good News On The Free Trade Front Has Been Quite Sparse Recently . . .
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Economy | Featured Stories — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
So I am glad to get whatever good news I possibly can.
This certainly qualifies.
Read on . . .
The Chinese government agreed to eliminate tariffs, some as high as 16 percent, on the import of energy services and technologies, the U.S. Treasury secretary said yesterday in an interview.
That would not only encourage Chinese companies to buy environmentally friendly technologies, Henry M. Paulson Jr. said, but also would allow American corporations to sell more of their wares to China, helping to reduce the politically contentious trade deficit between the two countries.
As Washington welcomes more than a dozen cabinet-level ministers from China at high-level economic talks that start this morning, U.S. officials are already drafting a list of achievements to be announced at the close of the meeting tomorrow.
The two countries, the world's largest producers of the greenhouses gases blamed for global warming, are expected to announce that they plan to collaborate more closely on "clean coal" research.
Another important achievement, Paulson said, would be in the financial services sector. The countries expect to announce that China plans to increase, from 25 percent to a level still being negotiated, the stake foreign companies can hold in certain Chinese banks.
"I think a number of people will say we haven't made progress" when the talks end, Paulson said in the interview, adding that he believes some of the announcements will be significant.
The story goes on to say that the U.S. and China will not make any progress concerning revaluation of the Chinese currency. Which is fine by me. Would that all policy fights turned out to be so one-sided and so entirely correct regarding substance.