US and China sign 45-billion-dollar trade deals

Chinese President Hu Jintao urged the United States to ease restrictions on high-tech exports to China after signing 45 billion dollars-worth of trade deals with the US during a state visit.

Reuters/Jeff Haynes

"China wishes to work with the United States to fully tap our cooperation potential in fiscal, financial, energy, environmental, infrastructure development and other fields," Hu said in Chicago on Thursday.

"We hope the United States will work in the same spirit and relax its control on high-tech exports to China as soon as possible in order to boost its exports to China."

Obama said the trade deals would support 235,000 US jobs, and Hu pledged to increase imports.

Hu went to Chicago after meeting US President Barack Obama in Washington and attending a state dinner on Wednesday. He is returning to Beijing on Friday.

"Both China and the United States are major trading nations and benefit from free trade,” said Hu. “Our two countries should play an exemplary role in building and improving the global trading regime, advancing the Doha round negotiations and rejecting protectionism."

Top US politicians said earlier on Thursday they had pressed Hu on Chinese intellectual property theft during a meeting on Capitol Hill.

On Friday, Hu will tour a local high school where he will meet students studying Chinese culture and language and then meet business leaders at a factory run by a Chinese company.