links for 2007-04-03

US-based Citigroup and Britain’s HSBC were among a group of banks that incorporated Monday in China to provide retail loans to locals in a bid to ramp up their presence in the key Asian market.

The Chinese “treated me better, I think, than they’ve treated any other US officer,” Pace told the Washington Times of his four-day visit last week in a bid to expand contacts between Chinese and US military leaders.

Negotiators struck the world’s largest bilateral free-trade agreement on Monday, giving the United States a badly needed lift to its foreign trade policy and South Korea a chance to reinvigorate its export economy.

China has called on the Bush administration to reverse a decision to impose steep duties on Chinese exports of coated paper, state-controlled news media reported during the weekend.