Trade group hopeful over U.S. transition

GENEVA (Xinhua) — The US-China Business Council (USCBC) expressed hope that Joe Biden's election victory would usher in positive changes for US-China relations and urged more cooperation in technology and innovation.

"It takes two to dance, you can't dance alone," USCBC president Craig Allen told Xinhua on the sidelines of the Horasis Asia Meeting, a virtual gathering attended by business and political leaders from Asia and other parts of the world. "I fully expect the diplomatic part of the bilateral relationship to grow rapidly .. and that there will be a lot more dialogue on the various issues."

"As we look at global issues, such as COVID-19 or climate change, there is a great hunger for collaboration and effectively addressing the common global challenges that we face," he said.

Different approach

"On the trade and economic side, I fully expect that with a little bit of time and not immediately, that there will be a different approach that leads to growth and not decline in trade and investment," Allen told Xinhua.

According to its official website, the USCBC is a private, nonpartisan and nonprofit organization of more than 200 US companies that do business with China. Founded in 1973 with a mission to expand the US-China commercial relationship, it runs offices in Washington D.C., Beijing and Shanghai.

Allen said he expects the future Biden administration to first focus on the COVID-19 pandemic at home, and then on trade issues with China.

Mutual interest

"Trade I think will be focused on a little bit later, but I do expect there will be a series of negotiations. I think on both sides there is a will to get beyond tariffs. But that will require both governments to make adjustments in their economic policy," said the USCBC president.

Increasing investments is in both countries' interests, Allen said. "We hope to abolish, remove all tariffs, we want more Chinese investments in the United States, we want to invest more in China."

"The business communities in both China and the United States I think have a very similar view about that and we need both governments to work towards that end over the next six months or so," Allen said.