China, U.S. Agree to Counter Crisis, Fund Trade

By Li Yanping and Rebecca Christie

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- China and the U.S. wrapped up two days of talks, agreeing to cooperate to ease the global credit crisis and pledging an extra $20 billion to fund trade.

“We are both committed to strengthening the global economy,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in closing remarks at the fifth round of the Strategic Economic Dialogue in Beijing today.

The talks were the last for their initiator, Paulson, who will exit with the Bush administration in January, leaving China to face a new president who has already branded the nation a currency manipulator. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said talks between the two countries will continue.

“It’s a no-brainer that both the U.S. and China need to have high-level talks,” said Wei Li, a professor of economics at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing. “The U.S. wants China to be part of the solution to the global financial crisis.”

The $20 billion to be supplied by import-export banks of both countries will increase the total of annual trade financing from the two countries to $58 billion, Paulson said.

The money would be available to “creditworthy importers in developing economies” to finance exports from the U.S. and China and to benefit the global economy, the U.S. official said. “China is stepping up its efforts to promote global growth and stability.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Li Yanping in Beijing at yli16@bloomberg.net