United States Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez's ongoing China tour shows the US's willingness to solve current trade disputes through consultations, Chinese trade experts said Friday, suggesting the two sides treat their problems rationally.

"US Commerce Secretary's visit to China shows the United States attaches great importance to economic and trade relations with China," said Zhou Shijian, a senior international trade expert who used to be the vice director of the China Minmetals Import and Export Council.

The two sides should find solutions through friendly discussion on the basis of mutual benefit, Zhou said.

At a luncheon hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China here on Thursday, Gutierrez said that the US government hopes to solve the US-China textile issue through consultations and continue strengthening its economic and trade relationship with China.

The United States enjoys comparative advantages in service trade, while China has comparative advantages in goods trade, so the two economies are supplementary, said Zhou.

"Some Americans take it for granted that decrease in textile import from China and the Renminbi appreciation will automatically lead to alleviation of US unemployment and trade deficit problem, but this is only their wishful thinking," he said.

This week China revoked export tariffs on 81 categories of textile products, which was regarded as a tough response to US recent restriction measures on Chinese textile products.

On Jan. 1, 2005, when the global textile quotas were eliminated, China voluntarily imposed export tariffs on some textile goods so as to limit its export growth. On May 20, China again decided to raise the export tariffs on 74 categories of textile products, with a 400-percent hike for most of the products.

The United States and the European Union continued to impose restrictive measures on textile imports from China.

Gutierrez's visit can be regarded as a tour to "put out fires," said Wang Zihong, an expert on American issue with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. When the trade divergence emerges, the two countries' willingness to enhance the exchange of views is greatly important to dispelling misunderstanding and solving disputes, he said.

The two sides should strictly abide by World Trade Organization rules and restrict the disputes to dealing specifically with trade, he said. The trade disputes should not be linked with political issues, he said.

Although harassed by knotty disputes in textile and other fields, the Sino-US economic and trade relations still enjoy a great potential for development, said Zhang Yansheng, director of the Foreign Economy Institute of the State Development and Reform Commission.

"Both the two sides are working hard to find solutions and avoid trade war," he said.

China is now the US' third largest trade partner and its fastest growing export market. US exports to China increased by 80 percent since China entered the World Trade Organization in December 2001.

In the first three months this year, the Sino-US trade volume reached 43.62 billion US dollars, up 24.3 percent year on year, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.

Source: Xinhua