Jianzhong Kaya, a spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Beijing, denied that the two agencies met and said the meeting was to talk about “various possibilities” regarding the two sides’ trade.
“It’s totally false,” she said. “This is a very, very simple misunderstanding of the meeting.”
A second embassy official refused to provide the U.S. public with details and said the U.S. had “no contact” with China government officials on the matter. However, a third official confirmed the “exact language” of the agreement, saying officials from “the U.S. Department of Commerce, State Department and other relevant departments,” were present.
The two officials said they could not provide more details because the document could not be released for security reasons. It had been signed by officials from the two countries. “It’s only a draft, it’s not yet signed,” one said.
A spokesman for the state-owned Xinhua News Agency denied the reports of a government meeting.
The U.S. Commerce Department maintains an office in Beijing to assist with trade law disputes involving foreign companies with branches operating in China. China has a similar office in Hong Kong, under the commerce ministry. A similar office is under way to handle dispute settlements involving Americans and their overseas affiliates, according to the Commerce Department.
In 2004, the Commerce Department agreed to pay $70 million to settle charges that an American company had used illegal software and sold parts abroad, with the largest portion going to an American company based in Hong Kong. The settlement did not affect U.S. companies based in China.
The Commerce Department also has said that its Chinese counterpart has conducted a “stunningly well-coordinated,” multilateral operation to enforce U.S. economic sanctions against Chinese banks in 2007-2008.
In 2009, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control suspended the transfer of a $40 million loan to China National Petroleum Corp., or China National Petroleum Corp., after the Commerce Department said a Chinese bank “illegally handled or transferred more than $100 million” to a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned oil giant. There’s no mention of any sanctions being lifted last year.
According to Xinhua, Chen said China had also asked “several international organizations and the U.S., including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, for their