Paulson: Food safety a top issue for U.S.-China talks

By Glenn Somerville

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High-level talks in China next week will focus on down-to-earth issues like food and product safety, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday, even if currency issues are on participants' minds.

In a series of television appearances ahead of the next round of so-called "strategic economic talks" next Wednesday and Thursday, Paulson conceded the forum's bid to keep economic relations "on an even keel" has taken an unexpected turn.

"When we set this up last September ... I don't think anyone of us at that time saw product safety, food safety, the whole integrity of trade as being the key issue that it is today," he said on CNBC Television.

Nonetheless, "I would think that would be the top agenda item that we have" next week, he added. The discovery of tainted food items and dangerous children's toys imported from China fanned U.S. consumer anger earlier this year.

One of the United States' initial goals in setting up the talks was to push China to let its currency rise further, and Paulson uses every opportunity to call for faster currency reform, but controversy over food safety has partly overshadowed other issues.

"China has recognized the need to appreciate their currency and for greater currency flexibility," Paulson said on Bloomberg Television.

SPEED IT UP

"I don't want to use the word rapidly, but the pace of change has accelerated, they've moved it (the yuan) about 6 percent over the last year, they need to move it more quickly," he added.