Finance Minister Xie Xuren Sunday warned of a “rising trend of trade protectionism in the US” that may do “serious harm” to Sino-US economic and trade ties. Xie made the remarks on the eve of the Third China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), which is slated to start on Wednesday in Beijing. It is an annual meeting to ease frictions and problems in trade affairs and will be attended by many high-profile officials from both sides. A delegation consisting of nine Cabinet-level officials headed by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are meeting with a Chinese team led by Vice-Premier Wu Yi and many ministers, Xie said. US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt are among the US delegation.

Finance Minister Xie Xuren’s comments were reported by Hexun and are available in the AmCham-China Wire.

Secretary Leavitt met with AmCham-China members and held a press conference today. Notes from the meeting are available on the AmCham site.