(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-09 19:21

If some legislative bills currently before US Congress are passed they will cause serious harm to China-US economic and trade cooperation and to the interests of the US itself, said Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren.

Xie made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua prior to the upcoming Third China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), when commenting on more than 50 legislative bills concerning US economic and trade ties with China proposed by some US Congress members since the beginning of this year.

He said it is worrying to see the rising trend of trade protectionism in the United States, but he believed that cooperation still remains as the mainstay of China-US economic and trade relations.

"The noise we hear now is unable to impede the further development of China-US economic and trade cooperation," he said.

China-US bilateral trade volume has surged from less than 2.5 billion US dollars when diplomatic relations were established in the late 1970s to US$262.68 billion in 2006.

"These achievements have not come easily and should be all the more cherished. The two sides should properly address issues in current economic and trade relations through dialogue and consultation so as to jointly safeguard the mutually beneficial and win-win economic and trade relations between China and the United States," Xie said.

The SED III, themed "Seizing Opportunities of Economic Globalization and Dealing with Challenges of Economic Globalization", will be held in Beijing from December 12 to 13.

The dialogue will be co-chaired by the special representatives of the two presidents, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.