Mr. Chen Deming, Minister of Commerce, and responsible officials from relevant departments attended Chinese and Foreign Media Briefing in the afternoon of December 19 in Washington. DC, briefed the achievements of The 23th U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade and answered questions.

Minister Chen Deming said that the 23th U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade has just closed. In line with the principle of honesty and pragmaticality, working groups of both sides exchanged views on issues of major concerned in economic and trade fields, reached consensus and yielded positive results.The current Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade was held when both country completed important political agendas and the bilateral relations were faced with new opportunities, and the current Joint Commission was also an important bilateral exchange between The Chinese and the U.S. Governments. Vice Premier Wang Qishan, leading a delegation to the U.S. after 18th CPC National Congress, Acting US Secretary of DOC Mr. Blanc and Trade Representative Mr. Kirk jointly presided over the 23th JCCT, which fully reflects Chinese side’s highly attention paid to bilateral economic and trade relations and JCCT mechanism as well as the confidence of the Chinese government on the prospects for the development of Sino-US relations. The 23th U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade was an important action taken by Chinese side to promote the stable and steady development of Sino-US relations in the new situation.

Minister Chen Deming said that in the current JCCT, both sides spoke highly of the Joint Commission’s role playing in stabilizing bilateral relations and expanding mutually beneficial cooperation, and exchanged views on economic and trade issues of each concerned. American side said that the U.S. government will make efforts to promote exports of high-tech products for civilian use to China, timely process the application of China's items, and support for high-tech cooperation between the two countries in the field of civilian nuclear energy, continue to promote the relaxation of "Wassenaar Arrangement" to control on the part of the dual-use items and make Chinese side to be benefit from it. American side reiterated that the U.S. government welcomes Chinese enterprises to invest in the U.S., and continue to maintain a transparent and open investment environment.American side undertook to actively work with Chinese side to strengthen cooperation in the field of intellectual property, to provide the resources to implement the "China-US Framework Agreement on Intellectual Property Cooperation”,and implement the Agreement in 2013as soon as possible. In addition, American side said that review on China IWNCOMM patent application in the United States will be completed as soon as possible, and the transport aircraft airworthiness of both two countries will be improved through appropriate bilateral activities.

Mr. Chen said that, in response to the US concerns, China will strengthen IPR enforcement, promote the central government-owned enterprises and large-scale state-owned banks to install authorized software; initiate the revision procedure for Administrative Measures on Graded Protection of Information Security at a proper time; will give equal treatment as domestic agencies to foreign-invested agencies that are incorporated enterprises according with the conditions and set up in China, when appointing agencies and laboratories for China Compulsory Certification; treat foreign-invested enterprises fairly when developing strategic emerging industries; and will issue judicial interpretation on online indirect infringement at the end of this year.

Mr. Chen said that China and the US agreed to continue to promote practical cooperation through Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) and the affiliated cooperation work teams in different industries, and will carry out dialogue and cooperation in emerging industry, high-tech trade, trade of farm produce, legal exchange, trade statistics, communications and transport, and medicine and medical instrument. The two sides also signed two inter-government cooperation documents: MOU on Supporting China-US Trade Cooperation signed between China MOFCOM and USTDA, and Report of the Second Stage on the Discrepancy of Merchandise Trade between China and the United States signed between China MOFCOM and US Department of Commerce and Office of the United States Trade Representative. This JCCT has totally 50 achievements and consensuses, which is a complete success.

Cui Tiankai, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Liu Lihua, Vice Minister of Industry and Information technology, Zhu Guangyao, Vice Minister of Finance, and Yan Xiaohong, Vice Director of General Administration of Press and Publication and National Copyright Administration also attended the conference and answered reporters’ questions.