Overnight Money: China’s VP Xi in Washington for round of high-level meetings
The Hill — Washington welcomes Xi: Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to take over leadership of China in March 2013, will begin a long day of meetings on Tuesday with President Obama, Vice President Biden and most of the president’s Cabinet, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
No major policy decisions are expected during the week-long visit — a reciprocal trip following Biden’s tour of China in August — although discussion of key issues will continue regarding a broad range of economic and trade issues as U.S. and Chinese officials work improve their sometimes tense relationship.
As Xi arrived in Washington on Monday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) sent a letter over the weekend to the White House calling for stronger enforcement of trade laws with China.
“The White House must take seriously its commitment to protecting American manufacturers and American jobs by standing up to China’s unfair and flagrantly illegal trade practices,” Brown wrote.
In the letter, Brown asks the administration to take up a variety of trade issues, including currency, rare-earth materials, state-owned enterprises, indigenous innovation, intellectual property theft, labor rights, export credit agencies and the evasion and circumvention of antidumping and countervailing duties.
“China is one of the United States’ largest trading partners — and one of the biggest violators of international trade laws,” he wrote.
