HONG KONG, March 27 (Reuters) – China is willing to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with the United States, its Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said during a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement.
The discussion occurred during a World Trade Organization meeting in Cameroon on Thursday, the ministry said.
Wang said economic and trade relations should be the engine of China-U.S. relations and both sides should “properly handle the relationship between competition and cooperation.”
Both countries should strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation, “avoid vicious competition” and jointly “look forward” to promote healthy, stable bilateral economic and trade relations.
Wang expressed “serious concern” regarding the United States’ Section 301 investigations against several economies, including China.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said in March it had begun a second set of Section 301 unfair trade practices probes of 60 economies in relation to what it called failures to take action on forced labour.
(Reporting by the Shanghai newsroom and Farah Master; Editing by Jamie Freed and Chris Reese)
