[ Nikkei ] U.S. set to resume trade talks with China
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai is expected to speak to Chinese vice premier Liu He by telephone over the next few days, calling on China to respect the “phase one” trade agreement it signed with Washington under former President Donald Trump.
The U.S. also plans to resurrect partial exemptions on punitive tariffs to help curb the impact of trade tensions on its domestic industry.
That comes as Tai prepares to unveil the Biden administration’s China trade policy in a speech on Monday. To prompt Beijing to abide by the phase one agreement, Tai is expected to underscore that Washington will “use the full range of tools we have and develop new tools as needed to defend American economic interests from harmful policies and practices.”
The U.S. aims to persuade China to correct unfair trade practices through dialogue, without setting a specific deadline for talks.
In the trade talks, Tai is also expected to demand China corrects what the U.S. sees as violations of intellectual property rights. At this point, Washington has chosen not to negotiate a “phase two” deal, in which Chinese structural issues, including what the U.S. sees as Beijing’s excessive subsidies to domestic industries, would be discussed.
Under the phase one deal, China promised to increase U.S. imports by $200 billion in a period from 2020 to 2021, from the pre-trade war level in 2017. China’s total imports from the U.S. in January to August this yearremained just 62% of the target, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Judging that China had violated intellectual property rights, the Trump administration slapped tariffs on Chinese products in phases, starting in July 2018. China retaliated and the two countries entered a trade war. The U.S. has so far imposed an additional 25% of duties on imports worth a total of about $370 billion.
DPA Notes: Holy shit, USA remembered. China must be hoping so hard that the Biden administration will not honor those trade talks or even forget the entire thing altogether. They must be so disappointed.