While President Hu Jintaos visit to Washington produced no major breakthrough, it did reveal the world just how significant and complex the Sino-US trade relations have become. How these relations would be handled will have a far-reaching impact on the future of the global economy.

When the US President George W Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao met in Washington during mid-April, the world was at wits end on how to describe the eventwhether it was a meeting of equals, a convention of competitors or a rendezvous of potential partners? The significance of China and US being what it is, they called it the summit of super powers. True, China and America occupy highest priority in the global economy and today no other bilateral relationship draws more attention than these two giants. Trade and economic cooperation has been of greatest importance to both the countries and to the global economy as a whole. During the past four years, both the countries have accounted for more than half of the world's economic growth. More importantly, each contributes significantly to the others' prosperity. From 2001 to 2005, the bilateral trade between the two countries has increased at an average rate of 27.4% per year with the trade volume between the two countries reaching $212 bn in 2005, which is 80 times more than the total trade between the two countries in 1979. Today, China stands as the third largest trading partner of America, its second largest source of imports and fifth largest export market, while America is China's second largest trading partner.

Despite this rapid rise, the trade relations between the US and China have always been somewhat uneasy. They are marked by a lack of equity and balance. America's frequent calls for the revaluation of the Chinese currency, yuan, have not made much headway. And President Jintao's visit too, which was hoped to alleviate the mounting controversies over China's trade and monetary policies, could not offer much relief. The United States may take Beijing to WTO over the latter's failure to protect US intellectual property rights. While protectionists in Washington are dropping hints of a possible 27.5% import tariff on all Chinese goods, economists around the world fear the prospects of a trade war between the established super power and the emerging super power that could possibly lead to a worldwide recession.

The Analyst Magazine, Sino-US Trade Relations, Global Economy, Intellectual Property Rights, IPR, Monetary Policies, Commodities Trade, US Economy, World Trade Organization, WTO, Domestic Consumptions, Gross Domestic Product, GDP, Economic Growth.