Commercial War: China makes an opening bid in the United States ahead of Trump-Xi meeting


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The first offer does not meet the many basic demands that the White House has repeatedly detailed as indispensable in the Beijing trade negotiations, particularly regarding technology transfers and theft of intellectual property, according to one of the people. informed. Instead, the proposal was described as a reshuffle of previous commitments publicly announced by Chinese leaders, such as a selective increase in tariffs.

"What they offer is not new," said this person. "I think both sides are stuck in. The canals are open again, but there is still a lot to do – whether it's a modest de-escalation or a cease-fire. "

A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance could not be contacted immediately to comment on Wednesday night. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce in Beijing did not immediately respond to a fax requesting a comment on Thursday.

The Beijing proposal comes after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke by telephone on Friday to revive trade talks ahead of a meeting between the leaders of the two countries. two countries. US President Donald Trump said he would have a "good meeting" with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires later this month.

In recent days, it was still unclear whether the Chinese government would be willing to make an offer before the scheduled dinner between the two Argentine leaders.

The United States demanded that the Chinese make a clear offer before negotiations on a trade deal begin, while Beijing was reluctant to seek talks before making firm proposals.

Both parties have been working on the way forward to end the escalation of the trade war, which has left investors worried about its impact on consumers and businesses in the world's two largest economies.

"What the offer has done is now an opportunity for the US government to respond," said the informed person.

The troubles of the trade war in China will not disappear after the democratic elections. mid-term gains

Nevertheless, the reformulated offer – which includes the relaxation of restrictions on foreign investment and the elimination of requirements for joint ventures with Chinese partners in certain sectors raises the question of whether both parties will be able to conclude a framework agreement in the two weeks leading up to the G20 summit.

"They have a lot of work to do and they will have to find a way to make up for lost time," added the person, who called the bid "not enough leaning forward" to push the negotiation process to failure. positive result.

The offer was first reported by Bloomberg News.
Even Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross raised doubts earlier this week about the possibility of governments reaching an agreement as soon as possible.

"The problem with China is not just about tariffs," said Ross at a Yahoo Finance All Markets summit. "It was only tariffs, I think we could deal with it very, very, very quickly."

"The real problem is intellectual property rights, forced technology transfers, industrial espionage, these kinds of things, we can not tolerate such abuses," he said.

The US-China fault lines exposed during the meeting of senior officials
Senior US officials have sent mixed signals in recent weeks.

The Trump administration has been divided between free traders – including those on Wall Street such as Mnuchin and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow – and extremists such as US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the US Trade Commissioner. White House Peter Navarro.

Just last week, Navarro launched a shot at Wall Street, warning the "globalist elites" against any interference in the Trump administration's policy in China.

"If and when there is an agreement, it will be on the terms of President Donald J. Trump – and not on Wall Street," said Navarro, a former economics professor, during a speech delivered at the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn on Tuesday, Mr Kudlow said that Navarro "was poorly expressed" and "was not allowed" to express himself on the topic.

Forget the trade war, the Chinese economy has other big problems

The Trump administration has already imposed tariffs on Chinese products of $ 250 billion since July. Customs duties on $ 200 billion of these goods are expected to increase by 25% to 10% on 1 January, further aggravating the conflict.

China has fought back with tariffs on US goods worth $ 110 billion and is expected to react more if the US went ahead with the January increase.

Trump is given as a priority to adopt an aggressive stance towards China for what it calls unfair trading practices, including intellectual property theft and forced transfers of technology. He has threatened to intensify the trade war by imposing tariffs on all the remaining products that China sells to the United States.

A large number of US manufacturers, farmers and lawmakers on both sides say that they appreciate the efforts of the administration to change China's economic policy. But some argue that fares are not the best way to solve problems. They pose a dilemma to US importers who must decide to absorb the higher cost of the goods or pass it on to consumers, and some exporters suffer from China's retaliatory tariffs.

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