The U.S. business community welcomed an announcement Wednesday that the United States and China would institutionalize high-level talks seeking to enhance economic relations between the two countries. The White House said in a statement after talks between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao in London that the two sides had decided to establish the “U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country's biggest business lobby group, applauded Obama for deciding to pursue expanded engagement with China and said the creation of the new dialogue would substantially improve cooperation between the two countries on key issues. “There is no question that the new Strategic and Economic Dialogue will be a critical forum to forge common solutions that can return the global economy to prosperity and address shared geopolitical challenges,” chamber president Thomas Donohue said. The two sides will hold the first round of the dialogue in Washington this summer, the White House statement said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo will chair the strategic track while U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan will chair the economic track of the dialogue.
