JCCT Meeting This Year In Doubt; Expert Questions Romney China Stance

摘要

A prominent former White House official said last week that he believes the U.S. and China are unlikely to hold their annual meeting of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) on time this year, in part because of the uncertainty posed by the U.S. presidential elections in November and in part because the Obama administration still does not have a permanent head for the Commerce Department. "I think it is very hard to plan the JCCT for December, which is the usual target. I don't think it has been taken off the agenda yet, but I'd be surprised if we actually could have one," Jeffrey Bader, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in a Sept. 20 interview with Inside US-China Trade. He suggested that the two sides could look to hold the next meeting in "late winter, early spring" of 2013, once the U.S. side has a chance to put in place new top officials.