U.S. officials plan to impose trade sanctions against China Wednesday, after talks between the two countries aimed at crack downing on illegal trade practises bogged down.

Acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky is expected to announce a range of sanctions targeting Chinese textile and electronics companies that have been accused by U.S. manufacturers of illegally copying their designs.

Among the sanctions anticipated to be imposed on China’s textile and electronics manufacturers — which account for about three billion dollars in annual exports to the United States — is a 100 percent tariff on selected goods, which would double their U.S. price.

However, White House spokesman Mike McCurry pointed out that whatever sanctions are announced will not be implemented immediately.

“There will be a period after the publication of any targeted sanctions list in which there are public comments on that list,” said McCurry. During the 30-day period, he added, China will have an opportunity to continue negotiations to avert sanctions.

But talks so far have achieved little to satisfy U.S. negotiators that China is trying to stop the alleged piracy of U.S. “intellectual property rights” involving a wide range of products. (U.S. companies claim they lose two billion dollars annually just as a result of Chinese pirating of cassette tapes, compact discs and CD-ROMs.)

“We have to protect our American manufacturers, who are being ripped off in China by Chinese manufacturers,” U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said, explaining the need to enforce U.S. patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights.

McCurry noted that talks in Beijing concluded Tuesday without any indication of progress on this issue.

In Beijing, Chinese government spokesman Cui Tiankai concurred, “The consultations have not yielded any positive progress so far.”

Both sides, however, remain eager to avert any worsening of ties.

The U.S.-China link, McCurry said, is “an enormously important relationship to the people of the United States, who are involved in commerce increasingly directed at what will become one of the world’s largest markets in the next century, if not the largest market.”

“We can’t afford for this relationship to spiral downward,” Burns added. “We will meet them half way.”

Already strained U.S.-Chinese relations deteriorated further when the U.S. Navy sent warships into the Taiwan Straits last month in response to Chinese military exercises near Taiwan, just prior to the island’s presidential elections.

Other issues — from China’s sale of nuclear technology to Pakistan to Beijing’s human rights records — have also chilled diplomatic relations. None of these problems, however, has dented growing U.S. economic ties with China, whose fast-expanding economy exported 40 billion dollars in goods to the United States last year.

U.S. President Bill Clinton last week even gained support from Republican presidential opponent and Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole to maintain Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trading status with China.

Although Dole criticised Clinton’s “vacillation and inconsistency” in dealing with East Asian affairs, he lent crucial backing to MFN at a time when other Republicans have pushed opposition to the preferential trade deal in Congress.

Republican commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan had demanded that Dole oppose extension of MFN because of China’s human rights records.

Clinton was in a similar position four years ago, when, as the Democratic presidential candidate, he opposed then-President George Bush’s maintenance of trade ties with Beijing.

But now, the Clinton administration is more aware of the importance of good relations with China. Burns said that Washington wants to assure Beijing that “we’re not out to contain China,” and that it wants a partnership with Beijing on all security issues in the Pacific.

William Perry, the U.S. Defence Secretary, Tuesday said Washington would continue to build military ties with Beijing.

“Engaging China’s military will allow us to have a positive influence on this important player in Chinese politics,” Perry said. He added such ties would lower “the chances of a conflict arising as the result of a misunderstanding”.

Washington is also concerned with China’s increasingly active role in the United Nations Security Council, where it holds veto power, could damage U.S. interests. In recent months, China has threatened to block the extension of U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti — a key mission in Washington’s eyes.

U.S. business interests have now taken precedent over these other concerns about maintaining good relations with Beijing.

“We have an obligation to make sure that agreements reached with the People’s Republic of China are honoured,” McCurry said. But, he added, even with the prospect of a trade war looming, “we remain hopeful that can resolve this conflict short of any tit-for- tat retaliation.”