Beijing strikes cautious note on trade deal
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed the initial trade deal between China and the US s i g ne d i n Washingt o n o n Wednesday in a brief letter to counterpart Donald Trump.
That aside, the Chinese reaction to the deal has been calibrated —optimistic but certainly cautious.
Optimistic because after 22 months of a tit-for-tat trade war, there’s some movement forward. And cautious because much more needs to be done to smoothen the economic mistrust that both Washington and Beijing have for each other.
Trade between China and the US is expected to pick up after the deal and the easing of trade frictions.
According to the People’s Daily website, US shipments to China rose 9.1% year-on-year to 78.83 billion yuan ($11.46 billion) in December.
Exports of US agricultural products to China touched 14.1 billion yuan last month, climbing 200% year-on-year. In the same month, China imported 23,000 automobiles from the US, up 150% from the same period a year ago.
Neither the Chinese foreign nor the commerce ministries had come out with a statement on the deal, hours after it had been signed between Trump and vice-premier Liu He.
“The two parties in the trade war, which jointly contribute 60% of global growth, are too crucial to the world. The world needs a truce,” Zhang Yansheng, chief research fellow with the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges wrote in an analysis. “If China agrees to specific purchases including semiconductor in the phase one trade deal, it will involve companies like Huawei—whether the US allows suppliers to sell devices to Huawei. If the US does not, how could the specific purchases be reached?”
“We should not expect too much from the deal, as it was relatively easy for both sides to fruitfully conclude the phase one talks. The issues likely to be discussed at the phase two negotiations would be much more difficult,” Tao Wenzhao, a researcher in US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in the state-controlled China Daily newspaper.
An editorial in the nationalistic tabloid Global Times was more optimistic. “Both sides definitely have some regrets about the phase one agreement and are not so satisfied. This is precisely the type of response to a relatively fair agreement. Debating about who had lost or gained is shallow,” it said.