Secretary's Speech

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez Transcript of Signing Ceremony
Beijing, China

Secretary Gutierrez: Good afternoon. First of all, I'd like to say how pleased I am to be here with the business development delegation from the United States. We're looking forward to making this a very productive session, and I want to thank once again the members of the delegation for being here. We are witnessing signatures between U.S. and Chinese organizations which demonstrate that we are continuing to move forward and doing business together, creating jobs and creating prosperity for both countries.

I wanted to congratulate Motorola and the Telling Company for reaching an agreement for the purchase of millions of cell phones handsets that will help connect the people of Chinese with each other and people from the rest of the world. I also want to congratulate Western Water Corporation and Xiangshan County Government on their agreement for a major environmental improvement project. This signing ceremony today also included a grant agreement between the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Shandong Water Quality Improvement Project for a feasibility study in Northeastern China. I'm very pleased to have my colleague Lee Zach, deputy director of TDA with us, welcome.

Since China joined WTO in December of 2001, U.S. exports have grown on average 20% a year. China is America's third-largest trading partner and our fourth largest export partner. The executives with me on this business development mission represent 25 firms with very broad experience. They are here to do business. They are here to participate in signing ceremonies like this and eager to have their own signing ceremonies in the future. In fact, Altech, one of the manufacturing companies with me, is in the process of finalizing a new contract with the Shanghai Municipal Electrical Power Company.

We're all looking forward to our meetings with government leaders and members of the Chinese business community to address challenges and to explore opportunities for commercial partnerships and investment and, most of all, we are all looking forward to continuing the very positive development between China and the United States, continue to grow together, continue to create jobs and continue to create prosperity for both nations. Thank you.

Question: Recently there's been many high profile deals, for instance the city group trying to buy into the Guangdong Development Bank. I was wondering if you're going to bring up these deals with your Chinese counterparts. And how worried are you that there seems to be a trend of rising backlash against foreign investments at the time?

Secretary Gutierrez: We are always talking to our Chinese counterparts about matters which pertain to business investment; matters that may be pending; matters in which companies have asked for our advocacy. We don't talk about advocacy projects in public, we keep them private, but to the extent that we are advocating for a company we will bring those up. Again, this is my fourth visit to China since February 2005, and we're always talking business. It's always part of our agenda. In terms of what you say, "a rising trend of protectionism," I think around the world we all have to recognize the enormous benefits that there are in engaging in trade, free and fair trade, across all nations of the world. We believe that there is a lot to be gained, that there are a lot of people that can be lifted from poverty throughout the world by continuing to open markets, by continuing to engage in trade. That's a very positive trend, and we hope to continue that trend.

Question: Following on somewhat to that earlier question, do you think that the investment environment in China for U.S. companies is currently improving or deteriorating?

Secretary Gutierrez: I think that's probably a question you have to look at from an industry or a sector standpoint. Obviously, the businesses would know. We judge by results, and we judge by the numbers that we see, and I can tell you that this year, our exports to China are up on a year-to-date basis 34%. That is up over last year, which was up 20%. As I mentioned before, China is our fourth largest export market, soon to be number three. We are now exporting about $50 billion of merchandise and services. We would like to make that larger. We believe that the future should be focused on exporting to China as a way of improving our balance with exports and imports, not by any side restricting imports. It's all about exporting and doing more and more business with each other. If you look at the numbers, which is what we look at and what we pay attention to, ultimately what counts is results. I would say that both sides are increasing the amount of business that we do with each other, and that's a very positive thing.

Question: There's been a lot of discussion here in China about the possible impact on Sino-U.S. trade relations of the U.S. Congressional elections, have you been speaking to people in Congress, to the new leadership in Congress, what is your feeling about whether there will be any changes from that election?

Secretary Gutierrez: The original, or the initial signals and the statements and comments that we've heard coming from Congress have been very positive from the standpoint of supporting trade and supporting the trade agreements that we've had and the trade agreements that are coming forward. Obviously, we have to ensure that that translates into meaningful results. We all have to be very aware of any steps that we take that would signal protectionism. But we are ready to work with the new Congress. We are encouraged by what we hear, and we are looking forward to working with them to continue to expand our trade and to continue to engage the world in trade.

Question: Are you discussing the regulations that will govern access to foreign banks to China's banking sector come the middle of next month? Are you concerned about some of the requirements in those regulations?

Secretary Gutierrez: The banking sector is something that we've had a lot of discussion about. I will say that given that it is the banking sector that typically falls in the purview of the Treasury Department--although, as you know, the regulations do limit the amount of ownership as well as the number of banks that can be engaged in a specific transaction. So yes, that has been something that has been discussed and will continue to be part of our discussions.

All of our discussions basically center around three areas. One is market access, so that would fall into the area of market access. Intellectual property rights protection is very important for both parties, very important for China, very important for the U.S. And then the third is transparency and business law, which is ensuring that we all get the same information about laws that are coming up at the same time, domestic firms and foreign firms.

Thank you.