The CEO of Dow Chemical, Andrew Liveris, met with President Obama and China's President Hu this afternoon along with leaders from 17 other businesses in the U.S. and China.
President Obama says he's stressing the importance of increasing exports to China and increasing investment in the United States, "both critical to supporting millions of American jobs."
President Obama and President Hu made statements to the press before their meeting. From the press pool report:
President of the United States (POTUS) started by saying that he and President Hu have had "excellent discussions" last night at dinner and today during their bilateral talks. "But in order to deepen the relationship, it can't be just be government to government," POTUS said. "And there has been no segment that has been more supportive than business segment." POTUS said that one of the goals of the meeting was to "make sure that we break out of the old stereotype that China is taking U.S. manufacturing jobs. Our relationship is deeper than that." But POTUS did say that, "It is important to know that even with China's large population, America does more business with Europe than China." POTUS said that there needs to be a "fair, level playing field" for business to operate. Next, President Hu spoke for a few minutes. He touted what he said was a 150-fold increase in U.S. imports to China in since 1979. "If we look to the future, our trade cooperation has a bright future," he said. Hu said that China is engaged in efforts to boost its domestic spending, especially consumer spending, abroad. Hu also said that China "welcomes U.S. companies to China...All companies registered in China are given equal treatment." Hu said that he believes President Obama will continue to give equal treatment to Chinese companies
Booth Mid-Michigan has a press release from Dow outlining how much the company is invested in China:
The Company's 2009 pro forma sales in China were $3.7 billion, and Dow currently employes approximately 3,800 people there, including 500 scientists and researchers working across 80 integrated labs at Dow's new, state-of-the-art Shanghai Research Center.
Here's a list of U.S. business Leaders present at the meeting:
- Steve Ballmer, Microsoft
- Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs
- Greg Brown, Motorola
- Aris Candris, Westinghouse Electric
- John Chen, Sybase
- Jeff Immelt, General Electric
- Muhtar Kent, The Coca-Cola Company
- Ellen Kullman, Dupont
- Andrew Liveris, Dow
- Jim McNerney, Boeing
- Paul Otellini, Intel
- David Rubenstein, Carlyle Group
- John Thornton, HSBC
- Greg Page, Cargill
Chinese business leaders present:
- Liu Chuanzhi, Lenovo
- Lou Jiwei, China Investment Corporation
- Lu Guanqiu, Wanxiang Group
- Zhang Ruimin, Haier
