Beijing ? U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans said he warned China’s premier Tuesday that Washington would “vigorously enforce” its trade laws if Beijing failed to move faster on meeting commitments to open its markets.

Evans also said he pressed Premier Wen Jiabao to strengthen efforts to protect movies and other intellectual property, saying Washington was frustrated at China’s failure to stop rampant piracy.

“We put a white-hot light on it and said, this is something we’re going to watch very closely,” Evans told reporters.

Evans’ warning came amid mounting U.S. pressure for China to meet commitments made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 to open markets to foreign competitors.

The U.S. trade deficit with China hit $103 billion last year and could top $130 billion this year. American manufacturers complain they have lost 2.7 million jobs over the past three years, due largely to Chinese competition.

“We told them that we are going to vigorously enforce our trade laws,” Evans said. He said he didn’t discuss details of possible consequences if China failed to produce results, saying, “I don’t think it’s useful to do that.”

But Evans said he told Wen that any U.S. actions would comply with WTO rules. They forbid most unilateral trade sanctions but let member governments impose emergency restrictions on imports that threaten their industries.

The premier acknowledged that China needs to “work aggressively” to widen market access, Evans said.

“He realized that more market access for American products and goods is a direction they must head,” he said.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans speaks during a briefing at Raytek, a China-U.S. joint venture company in Beijing. Evans arrived Tuesday in China to urge Chinese authorities to open their markets.

China’s government didn’t immediately give its own account of the meeting. But the official Xinhua News Agency quoted a senior trade official as telling Evans earlier Tuesday that China was trying to buy more U.S. goods.

“China hopes to achieve a basic balance in its foreign trade and has worked hard for it,” Vice Commerce Minister Yu Guangzhou was quoted as saying. “China encourages its firms to buy products from the United States, and will expand imports from the United States.”

American officials have cautioned that Beijing’s failure to meet WTO commitments could jeopardize its access to U.S. markets.

A group of lawmakers have proposed repealing China’s normal trade status and imposing 27.5 percent tariffs — up from an overall U.S. average of less than 2 percent.

In a speech earlier Tuesday to members of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, Evans also complained that Beijing is unfairly helping its state industry by having banks carry billions of dollars of unpaid loans to government companies without requiring repayment.