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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China's written response to US demands for trade reform is unlikely to trigger a breakthrough in talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping later this month, a senior official told Reuters on Thursday. of the Trump administration.
PHOTO: Containers are seen at Yangshan deep water port in Shanghai, China, April 24, 2018. REUTERS / Aly Song / File Photo
Beijing handed over the document to the Trump administration earlier this week, in response to a US-backed pledge by the US authorities to relaunch trade talks, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
This is a good sign that Beijing has put something in writing after months of refusal, said the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The Chinese paper contains 142 points divided into three categories: problems on which the Chinese are willing to negotiate, problems they are already working on and problems they deem unacceptable, said the official.
The articles on Beijing's non-negotiable list are unacceptable to the United States, said the official, and the general list deserves to be viewed with skepticism, in part because China has already made commitments on economic reforms and business that she had not kept.
He cited as an example a past offer from China aimed at easing restrictions on US ownership of Chinese companies and said that China had subsequently failed to respond to applications for licenses granted to US companies.
The US authorities were still studying the list, which would have been received Monday evening.
Just two weeks before the G20 summit, the official downplayed expectations of a major trade breakthrough in Trump's talks with Xi at the World Rally in Argentina at the end of November.
An ideal scenario could be that the two leaders agreed to continue to speak and declare that the issue is moving in a better direction, said the official.
It was too early to say whether China's bid would be sufficient to prevent an increase in US tariffs by early 2019, he said.
Trump has imposed a $ 250 billion tariff on Chinese imports to force Beijing to make concessions on the list of demands that would alter the terms of trade between the two countries. China reacted by applying import duties on US products.
The tariff rate applied to 200 billion dollars of Chinese goods should increase from 10% to 10% on 1 January.
Trump also threatened to impose tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports, worth about $ 267 billion, if Beijing did not meet US demand.
Trump, who made it clear that he valued his relationship with Xi, and some members of his administration have been optimistic in recent public statements about the possibility of an agreement.
Another informed source of the state of negotiations between the United States and China said the trade talks between the two sides had not yet moved forward, in line with the more positive rhetoric.
He stated that China's offer was a "reshuffling" of Xi's earlier commitments.
An option for an agreement, added the person, would be that Washington stubbornly raises tariffs in return for some short-term actions of the Chinese while both sides negotiate tougher and longer-term issues.
Trump's group of economic advisers continues to offer different views on China.
Peter Navarro, a trade adviser who has called for harsh measures against China, was publicly reprimanded this week by economic adviser Larry Kudlow for "being kept up" with recent remarks in which he had urged Wall Street not to interfere in the folder.
Despite this, Navarro continued to play a role in the White House's trade policy discussions, said a senior administration official.
Feature story of Jeff Mason and Steve Holland in Washington; additional reports by David Lawder; Edited by Simon Webb, Cynthia Osterman and James Dalgleish
