Feb. 14, 2007 (China Knowledge) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson announced Tuesday that he has appointed Alan F. Holmer to be his deputy in charge of a new high-level strategic dialogue with China that he instituted in December.

Holmer served as a deputy U.S. trade representative under President Ronald Reagan, chaired the international trade practice at a major law firm and most recently headed the industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Paulson said the next meetings with China would be May 23 to 24 in Washington and that he was in frequent contact with the head of the Chinese delegation, Vice Chairman Wu Yi, in an effort to achieve results to lessen trade tensions. He also agreed that the two had agreed to set up a telephone hotline connecting their offices.

Paulson would be under pressure to produce results from the May meeting, as the U.S. government reported Tuesday that the U.S. trade deficit set a record for a fifth consecutive year and the imbalance with China soared to the highest level ever for an individual country.

The gap between what the U.S. sells abroad and what it imports rose to a record US$763.6 billion last year, up 6.5% from the previous record of $716.7 billion in 2005. For December, the deficit jumped a bigger-than-expected 5.3% to US$61.2 billion.