US, China in Excellent Conversation on Trade, Says Steven Mnuchin: Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin says the US and China are having an entire conversation, as the second day of negotiations over two nations’ trading relationship got underway in Beijing.
US, China in Excellent Conversation on Trade, Says Steven Mnuchin
Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and White House adviser Peter Navarro, who are also on the US delegation, declined to comment to reporters when leaving their hotel Friday.
A White House official says late on Thursday that the atmosphere was reasonably confident, but the real test will be China’s ability to deliver on its promises of economic change.
The US has turned over to China a detailed list of asks, Mark Calabria, chief economist to US Vice President Mike Pence, says during an event in Washington.
While China has not indicated any detail on what it may be preparing to agree to, a senior official sounds a defiant tone ahead of the meeting, and the state news agency warns against unreasonable demands.
The closed-door discussions between President Donald Trump’s economic team and officials in Beijing began on Thursday and are scheduling to run through Friday.
China’s largest media outlets have ordered to refrain from reporting any material beyond official press releases related to the talks, according to people familiar with the matter.
The US has tempering expectations of a significant breakthrough from the discussions, which are expecting to focus on concerns over China’s state-driven economy.
Forcing technology transfers and America’s widening trade deficit with China.
Underscoring the friction, a US report releasing Thursday showing the trade gap with China surging by 16% to more than $91 billion in the first quarter of this year.
China’s government won’t accept any US preconditions for negotiations such as abandoning its long-term advancing manufacturing ambitions or narrowing the trade gap by $100 billion.
A senior Chinese government official, who is asking not to be named, says late Wednesday.
Chinese stocks in Hong Kong are extending losing Friday, with Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropping for a third day amid uncertain over the US-China talks.
The S&P 500 Index fell 0.2% last session investors digesting mixing earnings, while the Dow Jones Industrial Index was little changing.
As Mnuchin and the others heading out for discussions, across town at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
President Xi Jinping indicating China will continue to embrace globalism, saying it wants to take part in world governance actively.
Those who reject the world will be declining by the world, he says in a speech starts the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth.
Few details
No details of any planning press conferences relating to the trade talks have given by either side, and analysts are not optimistic about potential outcomes beyond the two countries possibly delaying on the threat of tit-for-tat tariffs.
Our expectations are low. The US negotiating position is unclear indeed it is not even clear if the US representative has a unified viewing on what they want to achieve, according to Tom Orlik, the chief economist at the Bloomberg Economic.
The Chinese side has already made a concession and won’t rush to make more.
In the past few weeks have shown that tariff chatter can roil markets, so that is indeed a possibility in the next couple of days.
The meetings are an opportunity for two sides to exchange their views after the official channel for US-China high-level economic talks were suspending last year.
I am very optimistic that what we will hear from this week is a lot of very lovely sounding promises and commitments.
But we have to diligent about making sure that those nice-sounding promises and obligations are meeting. And that, only time will tell, Calabria says.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on as much as $150 billion of Chinese goods to punish China over its IP practices if the talks fail to yield progress, a move that China says will spark retaliation in equal measure on American exports.
The US is also looking at ways to crack down on Chinese investment in the US to balance scales and protect sensitive technology.
China has announcing tariffs on $3 billion of U.S. goods such as pork and wine in retaliation for new global steel and aluminum tariffs imposing by Trump.
The US levies were aiming at tackling China’s overcapacity.
Trump sounds a more positive note as his economic team entered the talks in Beijing.
Our significant financial team is in China trying to negotiate a level playing field on trade.
Trump tweeting as they arrive in Beijing. I look forward to with President Xi in the not too distant future.
We will always have an excellent, high relationship.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency says in a commentary Wednesday that the US should show sincerity in trade talks instead of making unreasonable demands.
China will take retaliatory steps of the same intensity if the US puts tariffs on its goods after the talks, Xinhua says.
Equal footing
The discussions should involve equal-foot consultation and mutual respect, and work toward mutual benefits; a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman tells reporters in a regular briefing on Thursday.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Xi’s top economic adviser, is leading his nation’s delegation.
Another irritant in the relationship is a US ban on sales of necessary American technology to telecommunications-gear maker ZTE Corp.
And a probe it is said to leading against Huawei Technologies Co., China’s largest mobile and telecommunications company.
Xi says Wednesday that China must firmly control significant technologies and rely on domestic innovation, echoing comments from days earlier when he used a visit to a semiconductor company in Wuhan to say the industry must make significant breakthroughs.
So, these are the points to describe in the US, China in excellent conversation on Trade, says Steven Mnuchin.
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