Maritime Administrator Captain William G. Schubert is traveling to San Francisco on July 31, to lead the U.S. delegation in talks with representatives from the government of China, to continue negotiations on a bilateral maritime agreement. The Chinese delegation will be led by Su Xiang, Director General of the Department of Water Transport.

The United States has been seeking to remove a number of restrictions the Chinese government had put upon carriers and shipping agents, restrictions that do not exist in other countries. For instance, U.S. negotiators are seeking to make it possible for US. carriers to be allowed to open branch offices in China, so that they may offer logistics services and act as shipping agents. U.S. negotiators also are hoping to negotiate the elimination of the requirement for large cash bonds for Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers, who often act as shipping intermediaries. Under the current Chinese regulations, the NVOCC's, as they are known in the industry, would be required to deposit large sums of money with Chinese banks as a surety, something that has kept many of them from operating in China.

Talks aimed at completing a bilateral maritime agreement were last held in April of 2003. At that meeting, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Consultation noting the progress of the negotiations in resolving differences. The text of the April, Memorandum of Consultation is available on the Maritime Administration web site, http://www.marad.dot.gov/programs