Chicago builds ties with Chinese firms

Gong Bohua, a law professor at Shanghai-based Fudan University, said the deal suggests that China will launch a competitive mechanism, adjusting policies and relaxing control of the payment cards' market entry.

Gong added that regulations should meet the requirements of the World Trade Organization and protect China's safety of finance and information.

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, is writing the regulatory policies on overseas bankcards entering the Chinese electronics payment market, the Economic Information Daily said earlier.

Other JCCT achievements include China's joining WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement and submitting a revised bidding list with a similar bid scope to those of other participants; an agreement covering US beef entering the Chinese market and Chinese cooked poultry going to the US; and the US reiterating its commitment to offering China fair treatment during its export control system reform.

The discussion areas ranged from export control, intellectual property, bilateral investment and agricultural trade to government procurement, e-commerce, medicine and food safety.

The China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade is a dialogue and communication mechanism for the two countries to discuss and expand economic and trade cooperation, as well as solve related problems, said Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, on Monday.

"We have the potential here today to demonstrate our two countries' ability to remove trade and investment barriers, increase the openness and efficiency of our markets and ensure that the stable trade and investment relationship moves forward," US Trade Representative Michael Froman said at the opening session.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade between China and the US will total $500 billion this year, a huge increase over 1979, when it was $2.45 billion.