Beijing shows signs of compromise with U.S.

Negotiators try to head off trade war

WASHINGTON — China is sending conciliatory signals as U.S. and Chinese negotiators meet in Washington to try to head off a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

Beijing has dropped an anti-dumping investigation into imported U.S. sorghum, which it had accused the United States of unfairly subsiding. It has also given approval for a U.S. private equity firm to buy Toshiba’s memory chip business.

Those gestures could suggest a thaw with the U.S. as trade talks went on for a second day Friday in Washington, D.C.

“China has come to trade,” Larry Kudlow, the top White House economic adviser, told reporters. “They are meeting many of our demands. No deal yet, to be sure, and it’s probably going to take a while — it’s a process.”

China’s Commerce Ministry said Friday that it was ending its inquiry into whether the U.S. was dumping sorghum in the Chinese market at artificially low prices, saying the investigation was not in the public interest. A day earlier, Beijing had cleared the way for a group led by the U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital to buy Toshiba’s computer memory chip business.

The moves signaled at least a willingness by Beijing to work toward a deal with Washington.

“I think China is willing to make concessions,” said Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS. “The Chinese stance has been very clear — that China wants to mute any trade dispute. But of course it doesn’t mean China would heed to all the demands the U.S. would place.”

President Donald Trump said Friday that America’s lopsided trade relationship with Beijing — the U.S. trade deficit with China last year reached $337 billion, its largest with any other nation — is “bad for our country. And we’re changing it around.”

A White House official said China had offered to work to cut its trade deficit with the U.S. by $200 billion while stressing that any details remained unclear. But China’s Foreign Ministry denied that any such offer had been made.

“It’s untrue,” said spokesman Lu Kang. “The relevant discussion is still underway, and it is constructive.”

The Commerce Ministry said it was ending the antidumping probe and a parallel anti-subsidy investigation because they would have raised costs for Chinese consumers.

The U.S. is China’s biggest supplier of sorghum, accounting for more than 90 percent of its total imports. China’s investigation, launched in February, had come as a warning shot to American farmers, many of whom support the Trump administration yet depend heavily on trade. They feared they would lose their largest export market for the crop, which is used primarily for animal feed and liquor.

The ministry said it had received many reports that the investigation would result in higher costs for the livestock industry, adding that many domestic pig farmers were facing hardship because of declining pork prices.