Trump's Honeymoon With China Ends as Dialogue Turn Frosty
By Andrew Mayeda
and Saleha Mohsin
The brief honeymoon between the world’s two largest economies appears to be over.
Three months ago, President Donald Trump had warm words for his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping after the two leaders bonded at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Within weeks, the Trump administration was touting early wins in talks with China, including more access for U.S. beef and financial services as well as help in trying to rein in North Korea.
Now, the two sides can barely agree how to describe their disagreements.
High-level economic talks in Washington broke up Wednesday with the two superpowers unable to produce a joint statement. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross scolded China over its trade imbalance with the U.S. in his opening remarks, and then both sides canceled a planned closing news conference.
At opening remarks by the two sides on Wednesday, Ross complained about the trade gap with China in unusually blunt terms. While U.S. exports to China have grown in recent years, imports from the Asian country have expanded even faster, leading to a $309 billion trade deficit, Ross said.
“If this were just the natural product of free-market forces, we could understand it, but it’s not,” Ross said, as Wang looked on. “So it’s time to rebalance in our trade and investment relationship in a more fair, equitable and reciprocal manner.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-19/trump-s-honeymoon-with-china-ends-as-economic-talks-turn-frostyIt's nice to see somebody starting the get tough with the Chinese.