Top Chinese and United States trade officials wrapped up their day-long negotiations on Monday with a consensus on intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, among others.

The annual session of the Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) was jointly chaired by Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and US Trade Representative Robert Portman.

On the subject of IPR, the two sides agreed to set up cooperation mechanisms for cross-border prosecutions for IPR violations and the protection of film copyrights, sources with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said.

"This year's JCCT is a step forward in strengthening market access for US goods in China, particularly in the area of computer software as well as improving the enforcement of intellectual property rights," Gutierrez said in a press release after the negotiations.

Chinese officials described the negotiations as "in-depth" and "frank" and added that the plenary session produced "many agreements" and achieved "important progress".

The US was asked to pay attention to the protection of IPR of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), traditional culture and resources.

In addition, a dialogue mechanism for security monitoring agencies and a joint working team under the framework of the JCCT on tourism cooperation are to be established.

No breakthrough was made on the hotly debated textiles issue. But the US agreed to use special restrictive measures on Chinese textile products with caution.

On agricultural products, there was more of a consensus.

US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in a press release that progress was made with China on several key market access fronts.

"Last year, US farmers and ranchers sold over US$6 billion in agriculture products to China, making it our fifth largest export market," Johanns said.

Johanns added that China has pledged to send a technical team to the US in October and will be working with US agriculture officials in the interim to work out the time line and process for reopening their market to US beef.

He also announced China's approval of NK 603, a variety of Round Ready corn, bringing the total number of biotech approvals from China to eight varieties of corn, two cotton, seven canola and one type of soybean.

Other topics discussed at the session included government procurement, and loosening export limits and tariffs on automobile spare parts, sources with the Commerce Ministry said.

Trade between the two countries has surged rapidly in the past few years. In 2004, two-way trade reached US$169.6 billion, about 69 times the figure in early 1979 when China and the US established full diplomatic relations.

"Sino-US trade relations are mutually beneficial and complementary, which is reflected in many aspects and cannot be measured with simple trade statistics," Vice Premier Wu Yi said at the end of the session.

She said developing equal and mutually beneficial trade relations is of significant importance to the stability of Sino-US relations in the new century.

In response, Gutierrez said the JCCT has a positive influence on the development of Sino-US economic and trade ties. He added that the US wants to improve trade relations with China.

Established in 1983, the JCCT is a government-to-government consultative forum designed to resolve trade issues and pursue bilateral commercial opportunities.

The US is now China's second largest trading partner after the European Union. China is the third largest trading partner of the US.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2005)