China has made agreed to lift strict limits on US beef imports, according to the Washington Post.
The report also said China has – after two days of high level talks – agreed to lower restrictions on the imports of wind turbines and telecommunications equipment, and other moves, that could lead to a substantial boost in US exports to the world's second-largest economy.
The report said although the US side was hesitant to describe the talks as a major breakthrough - the list of trade issues between the two countries remains long, and enforcement of prior trade promises has sometimes been lax - officials were buoyed by the result as the Obama administration fights to boost US exports.
The agreements will produce "concrete and measurable" improvements in areas such as China's protection of intellectual property rights, said US trade representative Ron Kirk, who co-chaired the meetings with a Chinese delegation led by Wang Qishan, vice premier.
Ranchers, effectively barred from the Chinese market since 2003 after a scare over mad cow disease, will get renewed access to China and potentially billions of dollars in new sales.
Alternative-energy companies will no longer have to build demonstration projects in China before bidding on wind projects there; telecommunications firms will avoid rules that favour locally developed technology; government industrial catalogues will be rewritten so they are not biased against imported equipment and capital goods; and software companies should benefit as Chinese government agencies are pressed to use only legally licensed software. More from the Washington Post