U.S. seeks market-opening pacts: trade representative

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said on Sunday that the United States continued to pursue market-opening agreements, which would cut domestic agricultural subsidies and substantially increase trade flows.

In a C-SPAN television interview, Schwab said that she was conducting an intensive round of bilateral talks with other trade ministers, to determine if it was possible to find sufficient "convergence" on the key issues, to restart more formal negotiations.

"We are trying everything humanly possible to see if an agreement is possible," she said.

Schwab spoke prior to an Aug. 22-29 trip, which would take her to the annual meeting of the economy ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and to bilateral meetings with officials in Singapore and China.

Source: Xinhua