Ren Hongbin, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, speaks at the China-US Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum held in New York, on July 29, 2024. According to China's General Administration of Customs, China-US trade reached 2.292 trillion yuan ($413 billion) in the first half, up 2.9% year-on-year. Photo: VCG

The US-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum was successfully held in New York on Monday (local time) with more than 300 representatives from enterprises and chambers of both sides attending, during the visit of a business delegation led by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), according to the council's official statement on Tuesday. 

Specific arrangement related to China's opening-up have been made as parts of more than 300 important reform tasks unveiled at the third plenum, which propose that China will steadily expand institutional opening-up, promote alignment with high-standard international economic and trade rules, and foster a first-rate business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized, as the country's big market will become the world's big opportunity, Ren Hongbin, president of the CCPIT, said at the forum. 

As the economies of the two countries are highly complementary with deeply integrated interests, Ren noted that strengthened cooperation will be conducive in maintaining the stability of the global supply chain and injecting more momentum into the growth of the two countries, the region and the world economy. 

Businesses from China and the US should continue deepening cooperation for the huge market potential despite Washington's suppression and implementation of "decoupling" practices targeting Chinese enterprises, thanks to the high complementarity, observers said. 

Even as the US has taken measures to hamper business cooperation, enterprises will still explore possible cooperation opportunities and won't lose their willingness to develop together, according to Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

The visit marks the first Chinese business delegation to the US after the third plenum, and it's also a return visit for the three-day trip of a group of US senior executives to China, led by the US-China Business Council, after the landmark meeting. 

China's steady opening-up demonstrated by the third plenum will provide a more stable environment for US enterprises operating in China and strengthen bilateral exchanges, Zhou told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

Experts said that the visit organized by the CCPIT will further showcase the country's unwavering determination in sticking to opening-up, along with its willingness to promote win-win cooperation with the US. 

US enterprises have remained confident in deepening and expanding their businesses in the Chinese market. For instance, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said during a recent earnings call that the returns on new openings are holding up in China, and the company is still working toward the 1,000 new restaurants per year base in 2024, according to the transcript released on Monday.  

Source:Global Times