VOA慢速英语 2007 0525a

This is the VOA Special English Economics¹ Report.

Top officials from the United States and China held two days of trade talks this week in Washington.

 
Chinese Finance² Minister Jin Renquing, Vice³ Premier⁴ Wu Yi and US Treasury⁵ Secretary Henry Paulson at the US-China Strategic⁶ Economic Dialogue
They agreed to increase the number of direct flights between the United States and China. And Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said the talks cleared the way for other progress. But no progress was reported on the issue of the trade deficit⁷.

It was the second in a series of talks, the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue. The next meeting is later this year in Beijing. Vice Premier Wu says talks are better than threats of what she calls "irresponsible" protectionist measures against China.

Some American lawmakers say China is taking too long to raise the value of the yuan. They say China unfairly keeps its currency weak. They say this fuels the deficit by pushing down the cost of its exports and raising the price of American-made imports.

China eased controls on the yuan this week, but not enough to satisfy many critics. China promises more but says a large increase would hurt its fast-growing economy. Some experts say the yuan would rise fifty percent if permitted to trade freely. Others think it would be much less.

China's huge trade surplus⁸ has left it with the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, more than one trillion dollars. Most of that is held in United States government debt. But China took steps this week to change the way it invests its reserves, in order to seek higher returns.

China will invest three billion dollars in the Blackstone Group, a private-equity company based in New York. The deal will take place as Blackstone sells stock to the public for the first time. But China said it did not want any voting rights in the company.

President Bush met Thursday with Vice Premier Wu. He later said the two countries have a complex relationship but the two hundred thirty-three billion dollar trade deficit must be dealt with.

One of the ways, he said, is to get the Chinese people to spend more, to change from savers to consumers. For example, the United States has been trying to get China to open up its beef market.

The negotiators talked about food safety. The United States is importing more and more food products from China. Yet there is growing concern that they are not always very safe.

Still another issue: The United States is pushing China to do more about illegal copying of movies, music, software and books.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

1 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

2 finance   

n.财务管理，财政，金融，财源，资金

参考例句：

• She is an expert in finance.她是一名财政专家。
• A finance house made a bid to buy up the entire company.一家信贷公司出价买下了整个公司。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

5 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

6 strategic   

adj.战略（上）的，战略上重要的

参考例句：

• The army moved for strategic reasons.军队作了战略转移。
• The bridge is of strategic importance to us.这座桥对我们至关重要。

7 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

8 surplus   

adj.过剩的，多余的；n.过剩，剩余额

参考例句：

• The manufacturers in some countries dumped their surplus commodities abroad.一些国家的制造商向国外倾销过剩产品。
• The surplus steam was blown off through the pipes.多余的蒸气通过管道放掉了。