U.S.Courts China as Trade Ally

Beginning of article

Byline: Jeffrey Sparshott, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The Bush administration's top trade envoy yesterday said he wants China, a rising economic power often portrayed as a U.S. rival, to take a greater role in global trade talks.

"I think they can play a more active role, and I think they should," U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said of China's participation in the current round of negotiations among the World Trade Organization's 149 members.

Mr. Portman, in Beijing on one leg of a three-continent trip to shore up economic ties and sound out his counterparts on the WTO talks, said China ought to more actively help forge a compromise between divergent …