*EPF208 12/09/2003
Text: United States, China Sign Sweeping Maritime Agreement
(Department of Transportation December 8 press release) (490)

The United States and China signed a historic, far-reaching maritime agreement December 8, the Department of Transportation announced in a press release issued the same day.

"This new agreement strengthens the U.S. shipping industry by opening new markets in China and enhancing efficiencies in overseas shipping by allowing direct market access," U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta said in the press release. "Based on free market principles, it opens significant new business opportunities for U.S. companies and their partners who do business in China."

The secretary noted that the agreement, the result of five years of negotiation between the two countries, will extend to U.S. shipping companies privileges similar to those already enjoyed by Chinese companies in the United States.

Following is the text of the press release:

(begin text)

U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Public Affairs
Washington, D.C.
www.dot.gov/affairs/briefing.htm

MARAD 32-03
December 8, 2003

Transportation Secretary Mineta Signs Far-reaching Maritime Agreement With China

The United States and China today signed the most far-reaching, five-year bilateral U.S.-China maritime agreement in the history of maritime trade between the two nations during a ceremony in Washington, DC.

As part of the continuing Bush Administration effort to strengthen U.S.-China relations and expand trade between the two countries, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta and China's Minister of Communications, Zhang Chunxian, signed a sweeping agreement that gives U.S. registered shipping companies the legal flexibility to perform an extensive range of new business activities in China, including logistic operations, and providing services for their own vessels and alliance partnerships.

Secretary Mineta said, "This new agreement strengthens the U.S. shipping industry by opening new markets in China and enhancing efficiencies in overseas shipping by allowing direct market access." He added, "It puts our shipping companies where the business is, closer to their markets and their customers."

The agreement offers U.S. companies similar privileges to those that Chinese companies already enjoy in the United States, he said.

"Based on free market principles, it opens significant new business opportunities for U.S. companies and their partners who do business in China," Mineta concluded.

More cargo containers move between China and the United States than any other country in the world. Over 3.2 million containers transit via ship between the two countries every year.

Maritime Administrator Captain William G. Schubert stated, "This agreement is expected to generate more business for American shipping and will facilitate more cargo moving across the Pacific. Positive employment benefits will result for the U.S. shipping industry and related industries associated with port operations and services, like trucking and rail."

The agreement represents a long awaited culmination of discussions and negotiations that have taken place over the past five years between the United States and China.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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