The United States and China have confirmed that the negotiating venue has changed to Shanghai’s US Treasury Secretary, Mr Nuchin, to discuss the location of the site.

Time and place for the new round of negotiations between China and the United States

The White House issued a statement on July 24, according to President Donald Trump’s instructions, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will travel to Shanghai, China to continue negotiations, with the goal of Improve the trade relationship between the United States and China. The talks will begin on July 30th. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will negotiate on behalf of China.

The statement also said that the topics of discussion will include intellectual property rights, compulsory technology transfer, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, services, trade deficits and enforcement of agreements.

At the same time, Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC on the 24th that he and Leite Heze will leave the United States on the 29th and stay in Shanghai on the 30th and 31st. The reason why China invited them to Shanghai is because for China, the Shanghai Communique is an important agreement between the United States and China and has great symbolic significance.

Mnuchin said that there are still many issues to be resolved between the United States and China, and this time will continue the last negotiations in Washington.

Mnuchin had previously stated that the two countries are expected to reach an agreement by the end of 2019.

China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng also revealed at the press conference on July 25th that the leaders of China and the United States will meet in Shanghai, China on July 30th, and hold the twelfth round on the basis of equality and mutual respect. China-US high-level economic and trade consultations.

Regarding the change of the negotiating location in Shanghai, the summit responded that it is “very normal” to negotiate at different locations, and Shanghai has good conditions for conducting consultations.

Why is Shanghai?

The US media disclosed relevant information long before the White House announced the time and place of the talks. Bloomberg said on July 23 that a senior US government official revealed that China asked for a meeting place in Shanghai instead of Beijing.

For China to hold a new round of negotiations in Shanghai, Hong Kong’s “South China Morning Post” reported on July 24 that analysts believe that China’s choice of Shanghai as a new location for China-US trade negotiations is intended to emphasize the commercial factors of negotiations, not political factors. , releasing the signal that “trade is trade, politics is politics.”

Analysts believe that by choosing the global financial center Shanghai instead of the Chinese political center Beijing, China is trying to downplay the political implications of China-US trade negotiations and shift to emphasize business factors.

Experts believe that China’s decision to hold a new round of China-US trade talks in Shanghai may be a new sign that Beijing is revising its strategy as it prepares for a protracted trade war. Shen Jianguang, chief economist of China Financial Technology Group Jingdong Digital Technology, said that China changed the venue of the negotiations and released a signal that “trade should be trade and politics should be politics.”

He said that China’s choice of Shanghai means trying to focus its negotiations on technical issues, such as the US’s relaxation of sales restrictions on China’s telecom giant Huawei and China’s procurement of US agricultural products, rather than political issues that are more difficult to resolve.

In addition, some experts mentioned that Shanghai has played a unique role in China-US relations. Hu Weijun, chief China economist at Macquarie Capital, said the important Shanghai Communique was signed in Shanghai in 1972.

At the same time, the Nikkei Asia Review published a July 25th article saying that former US Deputy Trade Representative Wendy Cutler said it is not appropriate to hold such a high-level trade dialogue outside the capital. “There are many reasons for doing this, including allowing both parties to limit the size of the delegations.”

David Dollar, an expert on Chinese issues at the Brookings Institution, said that the BC’s Beidaihe meeting every year may also be a cause, and many senior Chinese leaders will attend.

Du Dawei said that due to the Beidaihe meeting, many senior Chinese leaders may not be able to meet with the US delegation. Moving the negotiations to Shanghai can reduce some diplomatic shackles. “Dual-issue has released signals that there will be no major breakthroughs in this talks, so it is not important to meet where.”