China's President Pledges to Increase Imports, Improve IP Protections

Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking in Beijing to a group of 5,000, including 37 countries' prime ministers, presidents and vice presidents, said that China will continue to reform its economy in a number of ways, and that it intends to increase imports of good and services. According to an official English translation of the April 26 speech, Xi said, "China is both a global factory and a global market. With the world's largest and fastest growing middle-income population, China has a vast potential for increasing consumption. To meet our people's ever-growing material and cultural needs and give our consumers more choices and benefits, we will further lower tariffs and remove various non-tariff barriers."

He said that China does not have a trade-surplus strategy, and wants to import more manufactured goods, agricultural products and services to promote balanced trade.

He also addressed some U.S. complaints now being negotiated in the trade talks, though he specified that all the changes are "a choice China has made by itself." He said, "China will not resort to the beggar-thy-neighbor practice of RMB devaluation." Currency manipulation is something many American politicians have said gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage. He also said that China will "phase out backward and excessive production capacity," though he did not specify that it will be done in the steel sector. The Section 232 tariffs came about because antidumping penalties on Chinese steel were ineffective, the Commerce Department has said.

Xi said the country will continue to significantly reduce the number of areas where foreign companies are not allowed to have majority ownership, and that China is working on establishing full intellectual property protection, which he said is "crucial to promoting China's innovation-driven and quality development."