Tension remains in China, U.S. trade talks
WASHINGTON — A restart of trade talks between the United States and China ended Thursday with little sign of progress as Washington moved ahead with additional tariffs and President Donald Trump met with legislators to discuss a new law aimed at curbing Chinese investment.
The bilateral talks, while low level, were the first formal discussions between the two countries since the United States imposed tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods and China retaliated with its own levies on U.S. products. Still, administration officials continually played down the potential for resolution out of these talks, which came during a week in which the United States placed tariffs on another $16 billion worth of imports and trade officials began six days of hearings on proposed tariffs affecting an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods.
A person familiar with the talks described them as a detailed discussion of China’s policies and the difficulties facing the Chinese economy. This person described the tone of the conversations as “frank” and said the team from the United States spoke with one voice. However, there were no signs of an imminent breakthrough, and no further talks have been scheduled at this time.
U.S. negotiators focused more on asking China to make structural changes to its managed economy rather than simply purchasing American products, as had happened in some negotiating rounds in the past, another person briefed on the meeting said. But the United States and China remained far apart on a range of issues, with China complaining about U.S. violations of World Trade Organization rules, and the United States dismissing those concerns as irrelevant to bigger economic challenges between the countries, the person added.
Many China experts and U.S. businesses that depend on China as a source and a market for their products say they expect relations to weaken further before a resolution is reached.
“These are relatively low-level, relatively exploratory sessions,” Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, told reporters at an event in Kentucky on Wednesday afternoon. “Anytime you have interaction, there’s always some hope of some sort of progress. In terms of a big breakthrough, no, these talks are not destined as of today for a big breakthrough.”
Negotiations seemed to be progressing in May, when officials announced they had agreed on a framework that would see China increase its purchase of U.S. goods and services to reduce a trade imbalance between the countries. But that consensus quickly evaporated, as Trump was criticized for being soft on China and the White House ramped up its tariff threats.
China has expressed frustration that the United States has not established a clear point person in the negotiations, which have been led by an alternating group of officials including Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary; Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative; Ross; and others. This week, the Treasury Department designated David Malpass, the undersecretary for international affairs, to lead the discussions.
While the Trump administration has outlined its broad priorities, the specifics of its demands remain murky and China continues to meet every new tariff threat with its own promise of retaliation.