Bush urges China to spend more on US products
Thursday, 6 September 2007
BEIJING, Sept 5 (AFP): US President George W Bush called today on Chinese consumers to spend more on American products to help reduce China's surging trade surplus with the United States.
"Certainly I hope that China changes from a saving society to a consuming society," Bush told reporters ahead of the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"We want the (Chinese) middle class to be comfortable coming into the marketplace, the global marketplace, so that our producers can see the benefits directly with trade with China."
China's enormous trade surplus with the United States is a regular bone of contention in bilateral relations, with widespread American claims that jobs are being lost to the massive Chinese exporting machine.
The gap with China, which has the lion's share of imports into the United States, expanded to a record 21.16 billion dollars in June from 20.02 billion in May, according to US official data.
"Certainly I hope that China changes from a saving society to a consuming society," Bush told reporters ahead of the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"We want the (Chinese) middle class to be comfortable coming into the marketplace, the global marketplace, so that our producers can see the benefits directly with trade with China."
China's enormous trade surplus with the United States is a regular bone of contention in bilateral relations, with widespread American claims that jobs are being lost to the massive Chinese exporting machine.
The gap with China, which has the lion's share of imports into the United States, expanded to a record 21.16 billion dollars in June from 20.02 billion in May, according to US official data.