The United States is looking for concessions from China to kick start international negotiations on liberalizing trade in high-technology products, the U.S. trade representative said Monday. Michael Froman told reporters that the United States wants to resolve differences with China over products covered by the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) during annual high-level U.S.-China talks that begin Wednesday in Beijing. Negotiations to update the 1996 agreement have been halted by China's desire to protect dozens of new product categories. Roughly 70 countries participate in the agreement, accounting for much of global trade in that sector. Froman said that it is within China's grasp to get the ITA negotiations restarted based on a list more consistent with what other nations want. The trade representative warned that despite recent progress in bilateral talks, there are limits to what would make the deal "commercially meaningful."
