China deputy leader hopes to strike a deal

BEIJING: China’s top trade negotiator and Vice Premier Liu He

(pic), a Harvardeducated economist, is putting his reformer credentials to the test in months of fraught negotiations with American officials.

President Xi Jinping’s righthand man on economic issues has managed months of tricky negotiations with US officials in an attempt to hammer out a pact.

On his current trip, Beijing described him as the “leader in charge of the China-US comprehensive economic dialogue” – a change from his title of Xi’s “special envoy” on his last trip to Washington.

The omission could allow Xi to avoid having his name tied to any failure in the talks.

His task was made harder yesterday when the US once again raised tariffs on a large portion of the goods China ships across the Pacific, reigniting tensions that Liu had worked hard to dampen.

Liu admitted he was “under pressure” as he arrived for the talks in Washington on Thursday.

“Under the current circumstances, raising tariffs is not a good way to resolve the problems. It is harmful to China, harmful to the US, and harmful to the world,” Liu said.

The long-winded negotiations have been rocky from the start.

Last spring Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Liu thought they had struck a deal, with Liu saying they had reached a “consensus” and there would not be a trade war or new tariffs.

Weeks later US President Donald Trump moved ahead with new tariffs – eventually hitting US$250bil (RM1 trillion) worth of imports from China – leading many observers to say it damaged Liu’s political standing.

Beijing fired back with tariffs on most US imports.

Liu is “intelligent and diligent and throws himself into his work,” said He Liping of Beijing Normal University, who collaborated with Liu for nearly 20 years as a member of the Chinese Economists 50 Forum, a think tank of liberal economists.

The negotiations have carried on for 11 rounds of high-level face-to-face talks, with the 67-year-old Liu and his American counterparts following up on video calls.