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On January 31st, US President Donald Trump said that “China’s top trade negotiators,” are in the US meeting with representatives for talks to end the trade war.
China’s top trade negotiators are in the U.S. meeting with our representatives. Meetings are going well with good intent and spirit on both sides. China does not want an increase in Tariffs and feels they will do much better if they make a deal. They are correct. I will be……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
….meeting with their top leaders and representatives today in the Oval Office. No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi, and I, meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points. Very comprehensive transaction….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
….China’s representatives and I are trying to do a complete deal, leaving NOTHING unresolved on the table. All of the many problems are being discussed and will be hopefully resolved. Tariffs on China increase to 25% on March 1st, so all working hard to complete by that date!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
The talks were also announced by a White House statement on January 28th.
Trump said that progress is being made, but a final deal would only happen after he and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet “in the near future.”
The deadline the two leaders agreed on during the G20 summit Argentina on December 1st, 2018 is to end on March 1st. Past that deadline, tariffs on China would increase to 25%, “so all working hard to complete by that date!”
On January 31st, Chinese state outlet Xinhua reported that “the latest round of China-U.S. trade talks made important progress for the current stage, and the two sides had candid, specific and constructive discussions,” according to the Chinese delegation.
The two sides discussed the topics of trade balance, technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), non-tariff barriers, service sector, agriculture and enforcement mechanism, as well as certain issues of particular concern for the Chinese side.
The talks were led by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, with the participation of dozens of senior officials from both governments. The US included Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Larry Kudlow, and Assistant to the President for Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro.
The two sides have agreed to take effective measures to promote a more balanced development of bilateral trade. China will make “active efforts to expand imports from the United States in the sectors of agriculture, energy, manufacturing and services, which will help China’s pursuit of high-quality economic development and meet the people’s demand for a better life.”
“Both sides believe that it is very important to establish an effective two-way enforcement mechanism, so as to ensure all measures agreed upon through consultations will be implemented. They have reached consensus in principle on the framework and basic elements of the enforcement mechanism, and will continue to hammer out more details.”
Thus, it appears that at least on the surface, progress is being made. It will become clear whether there is an end in sight of the trade after the alleged Trump-Xi meeting “in the near future.
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