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HANGZHOU, China : China and the United States wrapped up trade talks Thursday with token gestures on commercial disputes but tension lurked beneath the surface ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama.
US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met for a second day with a team led by Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
Obama begins his first presidential visit to China on November 15, two months after igniting a trade dispute by imposing duty on Chinese-made tyres, prompting a Chinese complaint to the World Trade Organisation.
The two sides had looked to smooth over tension on a number of trade issues before his trip to Shanghai and Beijing, and Locke called the Hangzhou meeting of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) "productive".
"This productive JCCT builds a foundation for a most successful visit by President Obama in two weeks," he said.
Among the gestures made in Hangzhou, Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai said Thursday that China had decided to remove a ban imposed earlier this year on pork imports from areas of the United States hit by the A(H1N1) virus.
Locke said China also promised to crack down on rampant Internet piracy.
Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming told reporters, meanwhile, the United States had agreed to relax restrictions on some imports of poultry products from China.
But Chen also said his ministry was investigating possible unfair trade practices "involving imports from US automobile companies". He did not elaborate.
US officials said it was not clear whether the move was on top of Beijing's announcement, following the US tyre tariffs, that it was reviewing possible unfair trade practices involving imports of US "car products" and chicken meat.
Locke had said earlier it was "critical we make concrete demonstrable progress today to demonstrate to our citizens and to the entire world that China and the United States can work together to achieve results".
Beijing has said the tyre tariffs violated WTO rules but Obama has denied they amounted to protectionism. The two sides also have been at odds over pirated music and movies.
Vice-Premier Wang urged both sides to resist trade protectionism and work toward economic recovery, citing the two trading partners' "economic interdependence".
Market access "issues" were to have been addressed in agriculture, clean energy, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications in the talks, along with the protection of intellectual property rights, Locke said earlier.
The US trade deficit with China is the widest Washington has with any country, totalling 143.7 billion dollars in the first eight months of 2009, according to US data -- down 15.1 percent from the same period last year.
The two countries, the world's biggest sources of carbon emissions, also had planned to address climate change in Hangzhou ahead of talks in Copenhagen in December on a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
On Wednesday, top US climate change envoy Todd Stern said there would be no separate agreement reached by the two sides on fighting global warming during Obama's visit but added the two sides would work toward success in Copenhagen.
The two sides also signed 11 agreements on expanding cooperation in areas such as technology, clean energy, aviation and tourism, officials said.
Locke had said earlier the value of the US-pegged Chinese yuan would not be discussed during the talks.
- AFP/ir
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