Todd Bishop
China and the United States held a new round of high-level trade negotiations on October 10. Bloomberg reported on the 7th that people familiar with the matter reported that there are signs that Chinese officials are increasingly resisting the acceptance of the extensive trade agreement pursued by US President Trump.
According to informed sources, in the past few weeks, US officials have met with senior Chinese officials in Beijing. The Chinese side has raised the issue of willingness to negotiate, and the coverage of the relevant issues has been greatly narrowed. Liu He, the vice premier of the State Council of China, said that the conditions proposed to Washington did not include a commitment to reform China’s industrial policy or government subsidies.
The conditions proposed by the Chinese side have removed the main requirements of the Trump administration from the negotiating table. Some analysts believe that with Trump facing the impeachment crisis, Beijing will dominate. Officials of the Trump administration said that the impeachment investigation will not affect China-US trade negotiations.
Trump has repeatedly stated that he will only sign a comprehensive agreement with China. The report quoted people around Trump as saying that the president still insists on the views.
People familiar with the status quo of the negotiations revealed that after the negotiations broke down in May, China and the United States resumed contacts, mainly focusing on how to restart negotiations and how to avoid aggravating tariff wars. However, the relevant negotiations mainly focus on the timetable for the implementation of the limited agreement, rather than the content of the terms of the two parties.
The report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that the discussion focused on the three-stage process referred to by Washington officials. The first is the massive purchase of US agricultural products and energy exports, followed by the implementation of China’s intellectual property commitments in this year’s drafting agreement, and finally the United States to cancel some tariffs.
