US President George W. Bush said late on Tuesday that he would use upcoming talks in Asia to press for the dismantling of trade barriers and to call on China to reform its currency and copyright protection regimes.
Bush said that during his tour of Japan, South Korea and China starting next week, he would push for progress in the WTO's stalled Doha round of talks ahead of a crucial WTO meeting in Hong Kong next month.
"And so this will be a good opportunity to explain to our partners that a successful round in Doha will be good for our respective countries, our workers, our farmers, our business people," he told reporters from the three countries in a roundtable interview.
The trip will be anchored on the Nov. 18-19 APEC forum summit in the South Korean city of Busan, where Bush hopes to make progress on lowering trade barriers.
The president's tour will start in Japan, where he will arrive on Nov. 15 for talks with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a day later.
Bush then heads to Busan for the gathering of the 21 APEC members, which is expected to issue a statement aimed at pushing forward the floundering Doha trade liberalization agenda.
After the APEC summit, Bush heads to Beijing on Nov. 19 to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Bush said his personal relationship with Hu was "very good", but ascribed only a "mixed" rating to US-China economic relations.
"On the one hand, we have got increasing trade and dialogue and cooperation. On the other hand, there is still work to be done on intellectual property rights, for example, or currency, or market access," he said.
In advance of Bush's trip, the US and Chinese governments cleared one major trade hurdle in forging an agreement on Tuesday to regulate rocketing levels of Chinese textile exports.
But there is still mounting sentiment in the US Congress, and in corporate America at large, for the Bush administration to get tougher with China on the trade front.
Bush said he would relay to Hu that "the trade balance between China and the US is bothersome to people here, and that we've got to address the trade balance".
"And one way to do so is for there to be market access for US products," he said.
Bush said that he welcomed Hu's pledges to clamp down on abuse of intellectual property rights in China.
"People really don't want to do business in a country if they think their ... patents will be copied," Bush said.
"And this is not just an issue between the United States and China. It's really an issue that when China cracks down and enforces intellectual property rights laws, that it will be good for China's standing in the world," Bush said.
Bush said he would also discuss methods that the US and China -- the world's two biggest energy consumers -- can take together with South Korea and Japan to reduce each country's reliance on fossil fuels.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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