"I know we can out-compete any other nation on Earth," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

"We just have to make sure we're doing everything we can to unlock the productivity of American workers, unleash the ingenuity of American businesses, and harness the dynamism of America's economy," he added.

The president also referred to a raft of trade deals worth $45 billion the United States and China announced Wednesday as the two powers tried to narrow disputes by tethering their economic fortunes.

Lauding 70 trade agreements with exporters in 12 US states, presidents Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, edged away from the fevered rhetoric of recent months to stress mutual dependency, despite lingering tensions.

Obama expressed hope for a renewal of relations, casting aside "old stereotypes" and allowing US firms to more easily benefit from China's breakneck development.

In Saturday's address, Obama said that as a result of deals completed this past week, US exports to China would increase by more than $45 billion, and China's investments in America by several billion dollars.

"Most important, these deals will support some 235,000 American jobs. And that includes a lot of manufacturing jobs," the US president stressed.

Chinese businesses have descended on the United States to coincide with Hu's visit, inking agreements with US titans Alcoa, General Electric, Honeywell, Westinghouse and Caterpillar among others.

The deals span sectors as diverse as agriculture, gasification, railways and hybrid buses.

"These will inject fresh momentum into our bilateral cooperation," Hu said.

The meeting did however touch on US complaints that China does not adequately protect copyright and unfairly discriminates against foreign firms in competitions for lucrative government contracts.

Obama said the leaders had made some toward resolving each of those issues.

Hu was said to have agreed to make it easier for US firms to tap procurement contracts issued outside the central government, a market worth more than $88 billion dollars each year.

On Thursday, Hu also urged the United States to ease restrictions on high-tech exports to China.

"China wishes to work with the United States to fully tap our cooperation potential in fiscal, financial, energy, environmental, infrastructure development and other fields," the Chinese leader said in a speech to political and business leaders in Chicago.

Obama also praised a recently concluded trade agreement with South Korea, saying that will support more than 70,000 American jobs.

In December, President Obama's administration sealed a deal to end 95 percent of tariffs between the United States and South Korea, revising a 2007 pact negotiated under president George W. Bush that went nowhere in Congress.

The free trade agreement enjoys support from senior lawmakers, with revisions on auto tariffs in the new text winning over automaker Ford and the United Auto Workers union -- former staunch opponents.

But the AFL-CIO, the largest US labor federation and usually a staunch ally of Obama's Democratic Party, opposes the deal which it says will not fundamentally protect workers in troubled economic times.

Obama stressed the need of making everything that is necessary to uphold "America's global economic leadership."

"Leading the world in innovation. Opening new markets to American products. That's how we'll create jobs today," the president pointed out. "That's how we'll make America more competitive tomorrow. And that's how we'll win the future."

earlier related report
China to US: boost exports to trim surplus
Chicago (AFP) Jan 21, 2011 - China said Friday it would welcome greater US exports to the fast-growing Asian economy, rejecting blame for its large and politically sensitive trade surplus over the United States.

As President Hu Jintao wound up a state visit to the United States, Chinese officials appeared to try to shift the focus away from US allegations of currency manipulation and instead stressed business promotion.

"Our two countries need to sit down and work it out so there won't be such a huge trade deficit and trade surplus," Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming told a business conference in Chicago.

Chen voiced hope that US exports to China would more than double to $200 billion by 2015 as part of $500 billion in overall trade.

"We still have work to do to get to that $200 billion," Chen said.

The latest US data showed that the US deficit with China in 2010 was likely to top the 2008 record of $268.0 billion, even though the overall US trade gap shrank in November.

US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, addressing the same conference, said impediments were holding back US businesses that operate in China, including intellectual property theft and government preferences for domestic firms.

Chen, however, said China had its own complaints and pressed the case for the United States to ease restrictions on exports of advanced technology.

"We hope the US can eliminate discriminatory practices against high-tech products into China," Chen said.

Wang Chao, the vice minister of commerce, said China was shifting to an economy based on domestic consumption rather than exports, in line with exhortations by the United States and other trading partners.

"China never pursued a trade surplus. A long time ago, China began to pursue home-grown demand," he said.

US policymakers, led by members of Congress, have charged that China has kept its currency artificially low in order to boost its manufacturing sector and flood world markets with cheap goods.

Hu, in a speech in Washington on Thursday, hit back by noting US consumers have saved $600 billion in the past decade thanks to "quality yet inexpensive Chinese products."

Business leaders listening to Chen's remarks in Chicago welcomed any efforts to improve the climate for exports.

Richard Lavin, group president of Peoria, Illinois-based machinery maker Caterpillar Inc., said he was "very pleased" by the discussions during Hu's visit.

China is rapidly building infrastructure, but foreign companies complain that they are at a disadvantage as many projects are government supported and favor domestic equipment.

"The Chinese side is very clear that they are going to change the regulations to enable US companies to qualify as domestic manufacturers," Lavin said.

He also voiced confidence that China would take more action over intellectual property theft -- a concern President Barack Obama's administration has increasingly pressed.

"This is going to be more than running over several million CDs," Lavin said of China's next steps to address the problem.

Stephen Biegun, vice president for international government affairs at the Ford Motor Co., said the automaker was negotiating with China on changing safety specifications to ease costs for foreign companies.

Chen's remarks "were forward-leaning and this is exactly what we have heard in private from the Chinese government. We both want to grow Chinese exports," Biegun said.

The US Congress last year moved to punish China with tariffs if it does not let its yuan appreciate, but pressure has abated since the Republican Party won November elections.

A joint statement during the Hu-Obama summit said simply that China "will continue to promote" reform and flexibility in exchange rates.

"President Hu gave nothing, but no one should have expected a breakthrough," said Elizabeth Economy, a China expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"China will move in its own way on the issue, according to what it perceives as its own economic interests."

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News