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4 May 2018
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China us trade (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions)
The Trump administration has asked China to reduce its trade deficit
with the U.S. by $200 billion by the end of 2020, striking an assertive stance
in talks aimed at averting a trade war between the world's two-largest
economies.
A U.S. official confirmed the authenticity of
a document making that and other requests that were presented to China ahead of
two days of trade talks that ended Friday. The official spoke on condition of
anonymity due to the confidential nature of the talks. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Earlier, President Donald Trump had said he
wanted Beijing to cut by $100 billion the chronic U.S. trade deficit, which
Washington says stood at a record $375.2 billion last year. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
After the talks wrapped up, the Commerce
Ministry said the two sides had agreed to set up a mechanism to try to work
through their dispute, though differences remained, Chinese state media
reported. The report did not give specifics, suggesting little progress had
been made.
The U.S. document is described in an
introductory disclaimer as being provided to the Chinese ahead of the visit to
Beijing by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other U.S. officials this
week.
It also included demands that China
immediately stop providing subsidies to industries listed in a key industrial
plan. China must end some of its policies related to technology transfers, a
key source of tension underlying the dispute, the list says. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
The U.S. wants China not to retaliate against
U.S. measures currently being pursued against it. For instance, the U.S. says
China should agree not to target U.S. farmers or agricultural products, and
"not oppose, challenge or otherwise retaliate" when the U.S. moves to
restrict Chinese investment in the U.S. in sensitive sectors. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Analysts said the Chinese were likely to view
the aggressive posture struck by the U.S. as unreasonable and akin to bullying,
potentially making it difficult to tone down friction over such issues.
Yu Miaojie, professor at Peking University's
National School of Development, described some of the demands as "like
lions opening their mouths."
"When it comes to negotiations, both
sides can provide a list of requests and we will seek common ground while
reserving our differences," Yu said. "If one side provides a list
with unreasonable requests, the Chinese government is unable to accept
it." The Total Investment &
Insurance Solutions
The list was widely circulated on Chinese
social media platforms Friday, drawing hundreds of comments from Chinese
internet users criticizing the U.S.
"China won't be frightened by this kind
of threat," wrote Hu Xijin, the chief editor of the Global Times, a
nationalistic tabloid affiliated with the Communist Party mouthpiece, in a post
on the Sina Weibo website. Hu said he believed China would engage in talks
seriously but also be fully prepared for them to fail.
"China will never trade off its core
interests," Hu wrote.
Still, the list was welcomed by a U.S.
business group which has lobbied the Trump administration for greater clarity
on what it wanted China to do. Some groups had complained the administration
was sending mixed messages.
"We've been saying that the Trump
administration needs to define success and what specific outcomes it is
seeking," said Jake Parker, vice president for China of the U.S.-China
Business Council. The list submitted to China helps "lead to a solution
and avoid tariffs and other sanctions," he said.
China's Commerce Ministry did not respond to
a request for comment on the U.S. demands and did not refer to them in the
remarks released by state media Friday.
The two sides "reached consensus in some
areas," the official Xinhua News Agency said. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
"Both sides realized that there are
still relatively big differences over some issues and that they need to
continue to work hard to make more improvements," the report said. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
It said the discussions included expanding
U.S. exports to China, trade in services, the protection of intellectual
property rights and how to resolve the use of tariffs and non-tariff measures.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S.
delegation. A motorcade was seen leaving the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Friday
afternoon and the group departed China later in the day.
The list of U.S. demands was first reported
by The Wall Street Journal on Friday.
Earlier Friday, Mnuchin sounded a positive
note about the two days of talks, saying at a Beijing hotel on his way to talks
that they were having "very good conversations." The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
The group led by Mnuchin included Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and White
House trade advisor Peter Navarro, a fierce China critic. But the officials are
seen as holding conflicting views on how to resolve the dispute. That could
have undermined their ability to negotiate with the Chinese. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
His administration has threatened to impose
new tariffs on roughly $150 billion in Chinese goods. China in turn announced
plans for its own tariffs on U.S. goods.
It was unclear if the talks had cleared the
air enough to stave off such potentially damaging moves and alleviate
uncertainty for investors and businesses likely to be affected by such
measures.
The dispute will be tough to resolve because
the fundamental issue is that the U.S. wants to stop China from moving up the
so-called value chain as it transforms into an advanced economy, said Louis
Kuijs, head Asia economist at Oxford Economics. But "there's no way that
China's going to change its strategy on that." The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Kuijs said the ball is now in the U.S. court
on deciding whether the talks were fruitful and merit more discussion or that
they're stalled and Washington needs to take more serious measures targeting
China.
This is "much more than just a trade
dispute," Kuijs said. "This is very much about economic strategy and
the U.S. coming to grips with a big country running its economy in a way that
the U.S. is uncomfortable with, and becoming successful, and starting to
threaten U.S. dominance."
Separately, the Commerce Ministry said the
U.S. officials had agreed during the talks to raise China's objections to
sanctions leveled against Chinese telecom gear maker ZTE with President Donald
Trump.
China strenuously objected when the U.S. last
month banned American companies from selling technology to ZTE for seven years,
calling that unfair.
ZTE pleaded guilty in March 2017 and agreed
to pay a $1.19 billion penalty for having shipped equipment to Iran and North
Korea in violation of U.S. regulations. The U.S. Commerce Department said
employees involved were paid bonuses instead of being punished.The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
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