U.S. promises high-tech exports to China

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has pledged that the U.S. would soon take substantial action to ease the export controls to China, according to Zhu Guangyao, Chinese Finance Deputy Minister. “As far as I know, this was a promise made very explicitly and I believe that it will help balance the U.S. trade deficit to China once the policies are fully implemented.”

The U.S. now has over 2,400 restrictions on exporting high technologies to China and had a $295.5 billion USD trade deficit to China in 2011, up 8.2 percent from 2010.

"It is difficult for two countries to balance bilateral trade if there are too many export restrictions between them," said Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming. “I hope I'll have enough patience, and that the day of easing the export controls is not far off."

Neither country has yet elaborated on the details.

Before the Sino-U.S. dialogue, the U.S. had considered exporting commercial satellite technology, but China was not on the buyers list.

"It seems that the U.S. is still fine-tuning its economic policies toward China, which makes the dialogue more meaningful at the moment," said Song Hong in a talk to Dong Fang Daily. Song is a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"It will be a breakthrough to further deepen the economic and trade ties between the world's two biggest economies," said Song. "Meanwhile, because 2012 is an election year in the US, this round of talks is more important than ever because it will probably lay the foundation for the two countries' future relationship."