WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Representatives of the business community from the United States and China met on July 18 in Washington D.C. for an inaugural U.S.-China Business Leaders Summit. The group is co-chaired by Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Blackstone and Jack Ma, Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group. The group has agreed to establish an annual dialogue for the purpose of offering both governments solutions to pressing challenges in the U.S.-China economic relationship. The inaugural session was held at the U.S. Department of Commerce and attended by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.

At the conclusion of the summit, Stephen A. Schwarzman and Jack Ma made the following joint statement:

“A stable, growing economic relationship between the United States and China is mutually beneficial to the people of our two countries and for the world. This summit is a direct result of the positive conversation that began between President Trump, President Xi and their respective delegations at the historic Mar-a-Lago visit. We welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important endeavor and support our governments in their efforts to create a more equitable and balanced bilateral and global economic environment.

As the largest advanced country and the largest developing economy, the United States and China have significant economic complementarity, particularly in light of the tremendous progress and the historic economic rebalancing toward services and a consumption-led economy underway in China. Business leaders of the two countries see tremendous potential for cooperation and commit to enhancing these efforts.

Our companies are some of the largest employers in our respective countries and operate in many of the key sectors of the global economy. Having an open, transparent, predictable and business-friendly environment is a key foundation to fostering private-sector investment and job creation. In that regard, we call on political leaders in the United States and China to strengthen cooperation and dialogues on regulation and supervision, standards, protection of intellectual property rights, free, fair and open market access and to eliminate procedures and practices that act as a hindrance to economic growth and job creation. While respecting the use of traditional trade remedies, we hope that trade disputes can be resolved through effective negotiation with both sides working for prompt resolution.

To better support these efforts and to produce concrete outcomes, we agree to pursue a number of areas of cooperation:

• We commit to encouraging continued investment between our two countries, as well as cooperation on joint investment in global markets and specific topics such as manufacturing, U.S. infrastructure, environmental protection and the Belt and Road Initiative.
• We commit to increasing bilateral trade, including the export of agricultural products, liquefied natural gas, and high-quality consumer products from the U.S. to China, taking advantage of China's economic transition.
• We commit to enhancing our dialogues with our two governments to streamline cumbersome customs and inspection requirements, including through the use of technologies.
• We call on the two governments to enhance transparency and reduce uncertainties regarding the process of investment approval in both countries.
• We agree on the importance of increasing protection of intellectual property rights（IPR) to encourage innovation, including through strengthening the rule of law, stricter enforcement of IPR laws and regulations, and the use of big data.

As business leaders, we embrace free and fair competition and are convinced that this will help foster even deeper and healthier business and economic ties and job creation in both the United States and China. Having grown out of a trade denominated bilateral relationship over the past decades, we see enormous potential for the two countries to benefit from a more comprehensive economic cooperation.

The first meeting of the U.S.-China Business Leaders Summit in Washington D.C. was marked by constructive and positive dialogue. We also had the opportunity to brief political leaders from both countries of our progress ahead of the US-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue. We look forward to our next meeting in 2018 in China.”

The members of the U.S.-China Business Leaders Summit include:

U.S. CEOs:

• Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Blackstone, Co-Chairman of U.S.-China Business Leaders Summit
• Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Jim Umpleby, Chief Executive Officer, Caterpillar Inc.
• Doug McMillon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart)
• Mary T. Barra, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, General Motors Company
• Maurice R. Greenberg, Chairman C.V. Starr
• Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, General Electric (GE)
• Ginni Rometty, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)
• Jay Timmons, President and CEO, National Association of Manufacturers
• Ryan Lance, Chairman and CEO, ConocoPhillips
• Alex Gorsky, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Johnson & Johnson
• Tom Hayes, CEO, Tyson Foods

Chinese CEOs:

• Jack Ma, Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group, Co-Chairman of U.S.-China Business Leaders Summit
• TIAN Guoli, Chairman, Bank of China
• CHO Tak Wong, Chairman, Fuyao Glass Industry Co., Ltd
• WANG Yusuo, Chairman, ENN Group
• ZHANG Jindong, Chairman, Suning Holding Group Co., Ltd
• YU Xubo, President, COFCO Corporation
• TU Guangshao, President, China Investment Corporation
• Frank NING, Chairman, Sinochem Group

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