WASHINGTON — The Bush administration pushed for concrete results in high-level trade talks with China that began Tuesday, but the head of the Chinese delegation bluntly warned against confrontation.
Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said it was important that the two days of talks produce results to build trust between the countries. He said Americans were by nature impatient, and he said the two sides should work to build a "road map to the future."
The administration is eager for success stories to show an increasingly restive Congress, where lawmakers blame America's soaring trade deficits and the loss of manufacturing jobs in part on China's trade practices in such areas as currency evaluation and copyright piracy.
The U.S. delegation also raised the issue of food safety in response to the deaths of pets that had eaten pet food made with tainted wheat gluten from China.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab said food safety was raised by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.
"They know this is an issue that concerns us and concerns the American people," said Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, who said the issue would be addressed more formally in a later session before the talks conclude today.
In opening remarks, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi cautioned the United States against pursuing a blame game.
"We should not easily blame the other side for our own domestic problems," Wu said, speaking through an interpreter. "Confrontation does no good at all to problem solving."
Wu, who gained a reputation for tough speaking when she was China's top trade negotiator, said both sides should "firmly oppose trade protectionism." She said any effort to politicize the economic relationship between the nations would be "absolutely unacceptable."
Wu and her delegation also were to meet behind closed doors with key leaders of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who has been a vocal critic of China's human rights policies. Lawmakers are pushing a variety of bills that would impose economic sanctions on China after the U.S. trade deficit with China last year hit $232.5 billion, accounting for almost one-third of America's total record deficit of $765.3 billion.
Paulson created the Strategic Economic Dialogue last fall as a way to get the country's policymakers together twice a year to work on easing trade tensions. The first meeting was held in Beijing in December.
