China has a quarter of the world's population--a vast pool of potential consumers for U.S. products and services--and market-oriented reforms have recently helped generate very rapid economic growth. The World Bank has has estimated that China's economic output will reach trillion by the middle of the new century.

　　China-U.S. economic and trade relations have witnessed rapid progress since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1979. In the same year, the two governments signed the bilateral Agreement on Trade Relations, in which most-favored-nation trade status was extended to each other on a mutually beneficial basis. In early 1980s, a series of industrial cooperation agreements were signed and the framework of ministerial dialogues, namely, the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, the Joint Economic Commission and the Joint Commission on Science and Technology, were also established. All these work have contributed to the development of bilateral economic and trade relations.

　　From 1979 to 2001, China-US trade volume reached about US billion. Last year China-US trade amounted to US.5 billion, 30 times more than in 1979, when China and the United States established official diplomatic relations.

　　Currently, the United States is China's second largest trading partner while China is the fourth largest trading partner of the United States. China's exports to the United States are mainly footwear, garments, toys, automatic data processing equipment, machinery, electronic products and hi-tech products. US exports to China are mainly aircraft, fertilizer, power station equipment, electronic products, chemical products and machinery.

　　The two countries signed a bilateral agreement on China's accession to the World Trade Organization in Beijing on November 15, 1999. This, said the minister, greatly accelerated the process of China's accession to the WTO and created conditions favorable for long-term, stable development of economic and trade relations between them.

　　Despite the slowing down US economy since the fourth quarter of 2000, Sino-US trade has maintained a good momentum. Statistics from the Chinese customs show that bilateral trade grew by 21.2 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively, in 2000 and 2001.

　　Seeking to participate in China's rapid economic growth, major multinational corporations from around the world have shown great interest in investing in China. The United States is the third-largest source of such investment, after Hong Kong and Taiwan.The scale and fields of U.S. direct investment in China is expanding year by year. US investors have launched nearly 34,000 projects in China, involving a total contractual investment of more than 68 billion U. S. dollars with nearly 35 billion US dollars already in use. The US has become the second largest source of foreign direct investment in China, following Hong Kong. Fields of U.S. FDI in China range from machine building, power generation, oil exploration and petro-chemistry, to pharmaceuticals, real estates, as well as newly opened up sectors, such as financial services, insurance, foreign trade and accounting business.

　　Statistics show that in 2001 alone, US companies actually invested 4.86 billion US dollars in China, setting an all-time high on a yearly basis. Most of the money wentsintosmachine building, automobiles, telecommunications, computers, petrochemicals, energy, infrastructure facilities, finance and insurance.

　　China and the US enjoy their own advantages in terms of labor, capital, technology and market. The expansion of bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation on a equal and mutually beneficial basis is conducive to promoting economic development in both countries and improving the living standards of their people.

　　At the same time, industrial and high-tech businesses in the U. S. gained access to a huge and highly profitable market in China, which helps increase employment in the US, and China's high quality but low-cost consumer products have benefited hundreds of thousands of American households.

　　US investment has played an active role in promoting economic growth in China. Meanwhile, American businesses have also benefited from China's rapid growth in China.

　　Today, many of big American companies have made China an important part of their global operations.

　　For example, Motorola, with more than three billion US dollars of investment in China, has taken 30 percent of the Chinese mobile telecommunications market. General Motors has put 1. 8 billion US dollars in two joint ventures in Shanghai and Shenyang respectively. Kodak has taken the lead in China's photographic film market, while Microsoft has set up a research and development center in the country. All the projects have reaped rich returns.

　　At the same time, Chinese companies are also active in investments in the United States. By the end of 1999, 600 or so branches and subsidiaries of Chinese companies have been set up in the U.S., with a total investment of millions. Chinese investment in the U.S. involves the business of garment making, home appliance manufacturing, project contracting, restaurants, transportation, travel service, banking and insurance, etc. For example, the Haier Group, a leading household appliance manufacturer in China, has set up a factory in South Carolina, the US and has won a local government award for its contribution to the development of the local community.

　　However, there are still negative factors hampering dynamic trade growth, the official warned. One factor is that, when China's Permanent Normal Trade Relations status was approved, the US Congress added some clauses that were irrelevant to trade issues. These additional clauses cast a shadow on the development of Sino-US trade relations.

　　The US Government still maintains strict limits on exports of technology to China. These impose extra difficulties on normal technology trade between the two countries.

　　Chinese enterprises have lost in many lawsuits because the US Government defines China as a "non-market economy." As a result, many Chinese commodities are perceived as dumped goods when their prices are compared with those of other countries' goods.

　　Latest China-US Trade and Investment Figures

　　By the end of September, 2001, China-US trade totaled USD60.1 billion, 9.9 percent higher than that of the same period of last year. China exported USD40.3 billion worth of products to the United States, up 4.8 percent. U.S. export to China reached USD19.8 billion, 22 percent higher than the first half of last year.

　　From January to September, China has approved 1,872 new projects with US investment, with a USD5.45 billion contractual US investment and USD31.83 billion of actual input.

　　China-US Trade and Investment in 2000

　　China-US trade volume was .5 billion, 21.2 per cent higher than the year before. China' export to the United States reached .1 billion, increased by 24.2%, while its import from the US was .4 billion, an 14.8% increase.

　　In 2000, the number of newly approved US invested projects in China increased 24.7 per cent to 2553. Contractual and actual US investment reached .87 billion and .37 billion respectively, indicating a 29% increase for the former and a 0.6% decrease for the latter. By the end of 2000, there has been 31,255 US invested projects approved by the Chinese authorities, involving .5 billion of contractual foreign investment and billion of actual input.