China's integration into global economy benefits world: US official

WASHINGTON -- China's deeper integration into the global economy benefits the United States and the world at large, a senior US Treasury official said Tuesday.

This is because such integration will bring huge creative and innovative capacity that will support innovation years ahead, said Nathan Sheets, US Treasury's undersecretary for international affairs, at a Brookings event to preview the eighth China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) slated for early June in Beijing.

"That's in the global (economy's) interests and in the US interests," he stressed.

Sheets said that the deepening and further integration create a lot of opportunities for US firms to export to China, and creates jobs and opportunities in the United States, so that American consumers and firms can get access to a whole new range of goods that Chinese produce.

The undersecretary reaffirmed the US government's commitment to reaching a bilateral investment treaty with China before President Barack Obama leaves office.

According to the official, the upcoming S&ED will focus on a number of key issues, such as China's excessive industrial capacity, investment liberalization and macroeconomic rebalancing.

China's economic rebalancing is of crucial importance not only to ensuring a balanced relationship with the United States, but also to ensuring that China's economy is able to grow in a sustainable way, said Sheets, adding that China has made progress in its rebalancing away from exports, manufacturing and investment to domestic demand, service sectors and consumption.

In the question and answer session, Sheets said the G20 summit, to be held in Hangzhou, China in September, will focus on a robust set of issues which will be complementary to those raised in the S&ED.

Issues such as boosting global demand, making global financial system more robust, facilitating cross-border investment, improving international financial architecture, and promoting climate financing, will top G20 summit's agenda, said Sheets.