A US trade delegation arrived in Beijing and started a new round of trade talks with China on Monday morning.  

This comes after both sides failed at the second round of talks last Friday to resolve a simmering row over punitive US limits on Chinese clothing imports.

Vice Premier Wu Yi, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and US Trade Representative Robert Portman jointly chaired today's session, expected to focus on a number of hot trade issues ranging from textile disputes to intellectual property rights protection.

The technical-level talks on Friday were largely seen as a preparation for today's conference of the Sino-US Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade, or JCCT, an annual event between the two countries to discuss major bilateral trade-related issues. The two sides agreed to keep the channel of exchange open and continue the consultations in order to find an appropriate way to solve the textile and garment issue.

US commerce and trade officials in Beijing said a series of trade agreements were likely to be signed during this year's JCCT meetings, but remained conservative about the possibility of a specific bilateral agreement on the textile dispute.

The US placed restrictions on seven Chinese textile products after exports surged into the US market following the ending of a global textile tariff system on January 1 this year.

China and the EU headed off a similar confrontation in early June when they agreed to limit the annual growth of 10 Chinese textile product exports to the EU to between 8.5 and 12.5 percent until the end of 2007.

Both sides hailed the agreement as a victory for free trade and compromise. And China has urged the US to seek a similar pact and forgo unilateral administrative moves that cap the growth of seven categories of imports at 7.5 percent annually until the end of this year.

However, Chinese trade negotiators have largely given up hope of reaching a EU-type agreement with the US that would resolve the textile dispute during the ongoing JCCT meeting. But both sides pledged to keep the door open for further consultations.

(CCTV.com July 11, 2005)