Senior officials of China and the United States opened discussions in Washington Wednesday to try to defuse trade disputes and promote bilateral cooperation.

The meeting, officially known as the 15th session of the China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), was jointly chaired by Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi, US Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.

During the one-day session, China is expected to urge the United States to ease controls on exports of high-tech products, to recognize China's market economy status and to stop investigations into China's exports to the United States.

The US side is likely to raise its concerns about China's value-added tax on imported semiconductors, intellectual property rights protection, the technical standard on the WAPI wireless network, as well as the trade imbalance between the two countries.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said Tuesday that the JCCT meeting was aimed at expanding consensus, narrowing differences and pushing forward mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the United States.

First set up in 1983, the JCCT has become the highest level bilateral consultation mechanism on trade and commerce between China and the United States. This year's session is the highest level of the past decade.

Source: Xinhua