U.S.-China strategic and economic dialogue to kick off in May

The third meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) will be held in Washington, DC, on May 9-10, 2011. The State Department announced late Monday night that the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will be joined for the Dialogue by the Chinese Co-Chairs, Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo. The talks come amidst rising tensions between the world's two leading economies on issues related to currency policies, human rights, widening U.S. budget deficit and trade. The U.S. is currently one of the major trading partners of China, which incidentally is the world''s largest exporter. The U.S. and the European Union have been urging China to raise the value of its currency, the Yuan, more quickly, accusing Beijing of keeping its currency undervalued to provide an unfair advantage to Chinese exporters in the global market. Although the Yuan has strengthened against the U.S. dollar by almost 5% over the past year, the U.S. and China's other major trading partners consider the Chinese currency to be still undervalued. But, Beijing maintains that a sudden change in its currency policy would adversely affect the country's export sector and overall economy. Further, the U.S. Treasury Department had earlier delayed publishing its semi-annual report on China's currency and export policies, which was due on April 15, until after the bilateral meeting.