China becomes world's second biggest motorcycle exporter
www.chinaview.cn 2003-09-20 08:48:38
@@CHONGQING, Sept. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- China is second only to Japan in terms of motorcycle exports, said Zhang Jiannan, deputy head of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products.
@@Zhang was visiting Chongqing, the largest industrial city on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, to attend an international motorcycle fair.
@@Zhang said the country produced 13 million motorcycles last year, accounting for a half of the world's total output, and exported 3.44 million motorcycles.
@@China-made motorcycles are sold to over 150 countries and regions. Enditem
news.xinhuanet.com Tones Down Criticism Before Talks
Sat September 20, 2003 05:54 AM ET
By Emma Thomasson and Glenn Somerville
DUBAI (Reuters) - Like squabbling relatives who make up in time for a family reunion, finance chiefs of the world's richest countries toned down their criticism of each other's policies on Saturday just before a key meeting.
Finance officials at the Group of Seven meeting in Dubai also took the diplomatic route in tackling China's fixed exchange rate, which Washington in particular believes is kept unfairly low at a cost of millions of U.S. jobs.
Speculation had gripped financial markets on Friday that the G7 would signal its desire for the yen, the yuan and other Asian currencies to rise against the dollar to cut the huge U.S. trade deficit -- one of the biggest risks to a reviving world economy.
That might still be the underlying message of a communique due out later on Saturday after the meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.
"We think the world trading system works best under a regime of market-based exchange rates and we're going to continue to push for flexible, market-based exchange rates," said U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow.
European exporters also have a vested interest in seeing Asian currencies share the strain of accommodating a weaker dollar, a weight now borne chiefly by the euro.
"We have repeatedly stressed that the international adjustment process must be carried broadly," German deputy finance minister Caio Koch-Weser said. "That is also valid for the subject of exchange rates. The burden of adjustment should not just fall on one currency region."
But Snow said he did not intend to single out any country.
Asked about this year's heavy intervention in currency markets by Japan, which has bought some $80 billion to prevent the yen from gaining against the dollar, Snow said: "Ours is a general policy applicable to all countries."
SOFTLY-SOFTLY
The G7 also appeared to be taking a softly-softly approach to China, which repeated its determination not to loosen its grip on the yuan, or renminbi, until a time of its choosing.
"We will continue to keep the renminbi basically stable," the official Xinhua news agency quoted an official from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) as saying.
The reason is that China's trade surplus, including $103 billion with United States, was showing signs of narrowing as its deficits with other Asian nations surge, he added.
A Japanese Ministry of Finance official said the G7 communique was unlikely to single out China or Japan.
"I think we can address the issue in broad terms. Such sensitive issues should be handled with care," he said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for one will be hoping the G7 continues to turn a blind eye to Japan's massive meddling in foreign-exchange markets. Re-elected on Saturday as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Koizumi is counting on export-led growth to help him win a second term as prime minister in a general election expected by the end of the year.
Instead of tackling Beijing head-on, deputy G7 finance ministers held what German and Japanese officials called a constructive three-hour meeting with Chinese officials late on Friday.
The talks were the first of its kind and both sides agreed to continue informal meetings in future -- a first step, perhaps, to bringing China, the world's sixth-largest economy, under the G7 policy-making umbrella.
DISCREET CRITICISM
A powerful U.S. business lobby has turned up the heat on an election-bound Bush administration, filing a formal trade complaint this week in the latest high-pressure step to make the White House lean on China to let the yuan rise.
Some of President Bush's own economic advisers -- as lofty as Glenn Hubbard, former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers -- have dubbed this bad economics and said a sudden shift could spark a China banking crisis.
But U.S. manufacturers blame the low yuan, pegged since the mid-1990s in a tight band of around 8.28 per dollar, in part for the loss of 2.7 million factory jobs since Bush took office.
European officials are anxious that the twin threat of America's bulging budget and current-account deficits do not get lost in the debate over Asian currencies.
But there were signs that ministers would tread softly here too -- any evidence of a row could rattle financial markets.
"As welcome as it is that America is taking over the role of economic motor again, the imbalances that are showing themselves will be discussed, but very discreetly," German Finance Minister Eichel told reporters.
Ahead of their talks on currencies and the world economy, G7 ministers held unprecedented discussions with officials of the Palestinian Authority, which the World Bank said needed at least $1 billion a year from donors to keep its economy going.
Other political hotspots are also preoccupying the G7, who are in Dubai for the annual meeting of the 184-member International Monetary Fund and the World Bank -- the first time the event has taken place in the Middle East.
A donors' conference for Afghanistan will take place on Sunday, when Snow will also meet new Iraqi finance minister Kamel al-Keylani. Washington is pressing other rich countries to dig deep to rebuild the war-torn country.
reuters.com |
