BEIJING, Jan 13 (AFP): China will work to straighten out trade frictions with the US this year, the country's commerce minister told state media, following talks with US negotiators this week.
A large US delegation ended a three-day visit to Beijing on Wednesday in the first face to face trade talks since US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in December pledged a three-month truce in the escalating tariff spat.
China said the talks had "laid the foundation" to resolve mutual concerns on trade.
"We will properly handle the China-US economic and trade frictions" this year, commerce minister Zhong Shan said, according to a Saturday report by state media outlet Xinhua.
Zhong said Beijing will also promote outside investment, work to pass a foreign investment law and improve its dispute resolution system, Xinhua reported.
China's policymakers have long promised a more open and free market with better protections for foreign investors, but officials have been slow to make good on those pledges - leading the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China to coin the term "promise fatigue".
Zhong said China's negative list - which restricts investment in certain industries - will be further slimmed down, while Beijing also intends to expand economic sectors open for foreign investment without the need for a Chinese joint-venture partner.
The minister specifically outlined a push for foreign investment in manufacturing, high-tech industries and investment in China's inner regions -pledges which are similar to promises made last year.
Pushing Beijing to implement economic reforms and further open up areas for US investment is a focus in trade negotiations with Washington.
A Reuters report adds: Bank of China's (BoC) New York branch will enable Chinese firms to receive payment in yuan rather than dollars from their sales on US e-commerce platforms this year, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.
Pledging to introduce more services for small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in cross-border trade between the United States and China, executives from the branch said payment in yuan would be possible by tapping new functions of e-MPay, a cross-border payment system launched by the branch in 2016.
The branch is developing a system using an existing platform to "facilitate trade finance for e-commerce players," said Xu Chen, president and chief executive officer of Bank of China USA, Xinhua reported, without providing further details.
The system will adhere to US anti-money laundering rules through artificial intelligence and cyber security technologies, Xu added.
Bank of China has run into problems with overseas anti-money laundering regulations in the past. In February 2017, it agreed to pay a 600,000 euro ($688,000) fine to settle a case involving its Milan branch.
Prosecutors had alleged more than 4.5 billion euros was smuggled to China from Italy between 2006 and 2010.
A unit of fellow state-owned bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) last year settled money laundering charges in the United States.
