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WASHINGTON – United States. Trade officials are seeking to dispel rumors of China's policy divide between President Trump and his chief negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, following a tense exchange Friday in the Oval Office.
The incident occurred in front of reporters on Friday afternoon, as the president and cabinet officials met with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, the high-level trade representative, to announce that the talks aimed at to settle the Sino-Chinese trade dispute progressed and would be prolonged thereafter. weekend.
Mr. Trump appeared to blame Mr. Lighthizer, who said he was negotiating memoranda of understanding with China. MoUs cover half a dozen topics, including agriculture, monetary policy and technology transfer.
"A memorandum of understanding is a contract," Lighthizer said, addressing reporters. "A memorandum of understanding is a binding agreement between two people. And that's what we're talking about. "
This provoked what many thought was a reprimand from the president.
"The real question is, Bob, so we make a memorandum of understanding that, frankly, you can do or not do. I do not care if you do it or not. For me, that does not mean much. But if you write a memorandum – how long will it take to turn it into a definitive and binding contract? "Said the president.
Mr. Lighthizer responded quickly that he would call any agreement with China a "trade agreement", not a memorandum of understanding. "We will never use the term again," said Lighthizer.
The dispute was less important than it seemed, according to people familiar with the discussions, and mainly involved a disagreement over the terminology.
Mr. Trump was trying to point out that he was not interested in a short-term agreement; he wanted a long-term agreement, said the people. According to Mr. Trump, a memorandum of understanding stems from his experience in real estate. A memorandum of understanding is preliminary to the conclusion of an agreement.
Mr. Lighthizer, said the people, used the MOU as a trade agreement, meant to indicate that an agreement would not require congressional approval. One of the people said that the draft agreement protocols are very detailed and could total 100 pages.
US negotiators are aware of the need to present a unified front as trade talks reach a crucial point. Mr. Lighthizer, a skilled bureaucratic fighter, is also aware of the need to stay on the safe side of his unstable boss. On a number of occasions, Trump has marginalized Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin's policy and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.
"Discussions with China are continuing," said a senior official at the USTR office. "Thanks to President Trump's strong leadership, we are making great progress on structural and substantive issues."
If the two sides fail to reach an agreement by March 1, tariffs on $ 200 billion worth of Chinese goods are expected to rise from 10 percent to 10 percent at 12:01 am the next day. Mr. Trump said Friday that he was inclined to extend the deadline as discussions progress, in the prospect of reaching an agreement at a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in his area of Mar-a. -Lago in Florida later in March.
Some US officials are concerned that Mr. Trump is so focused on an agreement that could help boost markets without fighting for alleged structural problems, including the pressure exerted by Beijing on US companies to make the deal worse. they transfer the technology to their Chinese partners and the illicit subsidies. national enterprises and amendments to the regulations and legislation necessary to enforce intellectual property.
In recent remarks, Mr Trump is much more focused on potential purchases of soybeans and other commodities in China than on structural issues.
Until last fall, Mr. Trump had regularly sided with Mr. Lighthizer about Mr. Mnuchin to decide to impose tariffs on China and focus on structural problems. But when the stock market sank amidst the turmoil of trade toward the end of last year, Mr. Trump stepped up pressure on his MPs to reach an agreement with them. Beijing.
Negotiations continued Saturday and should end Sunday. Someone familiar with the discussions said that the USTR continued to pressure its Chinese counterparts to make important structural changes.
This involves ensuring that Beijing allows US cloud computing companies to operate in China on the same terms as those in force in China. Now, US cloud computing companies must sell their technology to Chinese companies, which pay license fees to US companies. US cloud computing companies, including
Amazon.com
Inc.
and
Microsoft
Corp.
can not offer their own services in China.
Beijing has long considered the problems of cloud computing as banned, arguing that it was about national security issues. A senior administration official said a few weeks ago that China had agreed to add more subjects to the negotiations.
Write to Bob Davis at [email protected]
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