Finally Getting Tough With The Chinese

[Palumboism]

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-frosty



It's nice to see somebody starting the get tough with the Chinese.

[Palumboism]

by: Sam Fleming and Shawn Donnan in Washington

The Trump administration claimed a “very big step forward” had been achieved toward addressing the trade deficit with China as two of the president’s top economic lieutenants said they expected to hold discussions with Beijing on targets aimed at paring back the imbalance.

Speaking to the Financial Times after two days of talks with Chinese representatives, Steven Mnuchin, Treasury secretary, said Beijing had “heard the direction of the marching orders” President Donald Trump had given his team and that the two sides were ready to work towards a specific plan on the deficit. Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, said he expected to negotiate dates and targets in tackling the trade gap with China.

   One person briefed on the discussions said that behind closed doors Wednesday’s talks had been “quite tough” and that Mr Trump’s negotiators had also adopted a more robust approach than earlier this year. They “did not want to settle for the crumbs the Chinese were offering across a range of issues”, especially after being criticised for being outplayed by their Chinese counterparts earlier this year, the person said.

   Mr Mnuchin said that “very specific targets” would be discussed sector-by-sector in coming talks. Mr Ross added: “Those have to be negotiated as we refine what the targets are and reasonable periods for deliverability.”

“Whether it is opening financial services, whether it is talking about tech companies being on a level playing field, whether it is opening their markets, our objective is to increase exports substantially to China so that American workers and American companies can compete on a level playing field,” said Mr Mnuchin.

https://www.ft.com/content/9c689988-6cd8-11e7-bfeb-33fe0c5b7eaa

[Palumboism]

China tells US way forward is dialogue not confrontation

“Dialogue cannot immediately address all differences, but confrontation will immediately damage the interests of both,” Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said as the China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue got under way in Washington.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nation/China-tells-US-way-forward-is-dialogue-not-confrontation/shdaily.shtml



I'm liking the in your face, Getbig style, confrontation approach they're taking.  It's refreshing after the previous non-confrontational eight years.

[Irongrip400]

I wonder why this wasn't he big story today? It was mostly about that Australian lady getting killed by the police and Obamacare repeal.

[jude2]

I wonder why this wasn't he big story today? It was mostly about that Australian lady getting killed by the police and Obamacare repeal.

Because that news on China would make Trump look good.

[HTexan]

Trump new policy is let china fail itself and let the wall build itself.