Agreed by China and the US, the 23rd China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) will be held in Washington on December 18 to 19. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan, US Acting Secretary of Commerce Dr. Rebecca Blank and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk will together chair the JCCT.

MOFCOM Spokesman Shen Danyang said in an interview that China and the US have close trade and economic relations. Currently, China and the US is the second largest trade partner of each other. According to statistics by China, China-US bilateral trade volume in 2011 reached US$446.6 billion. By now, the US has made actual investment of US$70 billion to China, and China has made financial and non-financial investment of nearly US$10 billion to the US.

Mr. Shen said that JCCT is one of the earliest dialogue mechanisms set up by the two governments in trade and economic field. Since the first JCCT held in 1983, over the past 29 years, the two sides have successfully held 22 sessions of JCCT, which played an irreplaceable role in expanding bilateral trade and economic cooperation and maintaining China-US trade and economic relations.

Mr. Shen said that this JCCT, which will be held after the US election and the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, serves as a link between past and future. Vice Premier Wang Qishan will lead a delegation composed by related Chinese government departments to visit the US, which shows the high attention paid by the Chinese government to China-US trade and economic relations and the ardent expectation of China to further develop China-US trade and economic cooperation. At this JCCT, China and the US will exchange views over major trade and economic issues concerned by the two sides. It is hoped that the US can actively respond to China’s concerns, and together with China to build the China-US cooperation partnership with mutual respect and win-win results and maintain the sound development momentum of China-US relations.