The US and China have agreed to take measures to “substantially reduce” the US’ massive trade deficit with China, but US President Donald Trump’s administration failed to get the Chinese to commit to a specific numerical goal.
Still, the talks, which began on Thursday and ended on Saturday with the issuance of a joint statement, might have helped to ease tensions slightly between the world’s two biggest economic powers.
In recent months the two have threatened to impose punitive tariffs on billions of dollars worth each other’s exports.
In the statement, Beijing committed to “significantly increase” its purchases of US goods and services, saying that the increase would “meet the growing consumption needs of the Chinese people and the need for high-quality economic development.”
The two countries also agreed on “meaningful increases” of US agriculture and energy exports and greater efforts to increase trade in manufactured goods and services. The US said it would send a team to China to work out the details.
However, the statement provided no dollar amounts on how much China might boost its purchases of US products.
US National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow had told reporters on Friday that a reduction in the trade gap of at least US$200 billion by 2020 was a “good number.”
Last year, the US had a record deficit with China in merchandise trade of US$375 billion, the largest with any nation.
Saturday’s statement was also silent on whether the talks had made progress in easing a developing tit-for-tat trade war in which each nation threatened to impose punitive tariffs.
Trade analysts said it was highly unlikely that China would ever agree to a numerical target for cutting the trade gap between the two nations, but they said the talks likely were more successful in de-escalating recent trade tensions.
“It is likely that this agreement, weak and vague though it is, will serve as grounds to at least delay the imposition of tariffs,” said Eswar Prasad, an economist and trade expert at Cornell University.
“The Trump administration seems eager to engineer at minimum a temporary peace with China to ensure a smooth run-up to the Kim-Trump summit in June,” Prasad said, referring to the June 12 meeting planned for Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Washington talks, which followed a high-level meeting last month in Beijing, were led by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴) and US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin.
Europe could end up rueing a potential new deal between China and the US, French Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire said yesterday.
“The United States and China risk entering an agreement at the expense of Europe if Europe is not capable of showing a firm hand,” Le Maire told CNEWS television.
“The United States wants to make Europe and European countries pay for China’s bad behavior. All of that is totally absurd and incomprehensible for allies,” he said.
Le Maire said French President Emmanuel Macron had been “very clear” on his request for “total and definitive exemption from American tariffs.”
Trump saidearlier this month that the EU would be shielded from his steel and aluminium tariffs along with Mexico and Canada, but only for another 30 days.
The EU on Friday told the WTO that it was ready to unfurl retaliatory measures against US tariffs, which would include European tariffs on motorcycles and bourbon.
Additional reporting by AFP
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