The latest round of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) has concluded.  Said Scott Paul, Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM):

"The Chinese regime accomplished its main objective of the talks: to avoid any consequences for its harmful, mercantilist economic policies. With only two more sessions of the S&ED likely to take place prior to the 2012 U.S. elections, I suspect that Beijing's strategy will be to run out the clock.

"I doubt if the communique will be worth the paper it is printed on because it lacks objective criteria and an understanding of what the consequences will be if China fails to honor agreed-upon international norms on trade, exchange rates, and investment.

"Our trade deficit with China was a record $273 billion last year. We have seen high monthly bilateral trade deficits this year. Why are we not making any progress? It's precisely because the focus of these talks will not budge that statistic.  Serious changes in exchange rates, eliminating state subsidies, and a move by China to raise interest rates and wages will move the trade deficit down. But the Administration's tactic on these issues has been to raise them politely and then to move on.

"For the millions of American workers and businesses facing state-supported competition from China, that's simply not good enough. Sure, we can be polite with China, but we also need to be firm. And that is what's missing right now."