China, Japan to expand cooperation on trade, IPR

China and Japan concluded their second high-level economic dialog in Tokyo on Sunday. The meeting focused on ways to respond to the global financial crisis and promote bilateral trade relations. Other issues on the agenda included environmental protection and intellectual property rights, among others.

The one-day meeting was co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone.

"This dialog enabled in-depth discussions over the economic and financial situation, environmental and energy cooperation, trade and investment cooperation and regional and international economic issues, reaching a lot of important consensus and achieving positive results," CRI quotes Wang as saying.

Wang also stressed that, in view of the financial crisis, China and Japan need to actively pursue the consensuses reached at the G20 Summit in Washington DC and London, and to unswervingly fight protectionism.

Nakasone characterized the meeting as "meaningful communication," CRI writes. He also said the two countries were committed to promoting open and transparent trade relations and helping the world economy to get back on track.

The two sides expressed their agreement on the need to proceed with the setting up of a "10+3" Asian foreign exchange reserve pool and bond market, CRI says. They also decided to set up a system to jointly provide development assistance to third countries in the first such cooperation agreement between the two countries, AFP notes.

The trade ministers of both countries also signed a memorandum on intellectual property rights protection at the meeting. The accord included plans to set up of a joint working group to create a legal framework to enforce crackdowns on violations of intellectual property rights, CRI says.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Nakasone spoke with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, urging China to take a tough stance on the North Korean nuclear issue and back a "strong" UN Security Council resolution, FoxNews writes. Otherwise, the communist regime would not get the message, he said.

Thus far, China has advocated a "moderate and balanced" resolution to the issue, FoxNews reports.

The first China-Japan Economic Dialog was held in Beijing in December 2007. The mechanism was set up by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during Wen's trip to Japan in April 2007, CRI says.