WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US trade negotiators want to make “meaningful progress” in upcoming talks with China, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, after conciliatory gestures by both sides
boosted hopes of an eventual resolution.
Mnuchin said on CNBC he is “cautiously optimistic” about chances for a
deal to resolve the conflict, while President Donald Trump hinted at a
watering down of his position with the possibility of an interim deal.
Washington and Beijing will first hold talks at the deputy level to ensure
senior officials who meet later can advance towards an agreement.
“We don’t want a trip that’s just a series of discussions. We want to make
meaningful progress,” Mnuchin said.
However, he again warned that Trump will only accept a good deal, and is
willing to raise tariffs if necessary.
Trump told reporters he preferred to seal a complete deal, but that he
might be willing to consider an interim agreement.
“I’d rather get the whole deal done,” he said, but noted analysts have
been discussing the possibility of an interim deal “meaning we’ll do pieces
of it, the easy ones first.”
“There’s no easy or hard, there’s a deal or there’s not a deal. It’s
something we would consider I guess,” he said.
There have been positive signs this week in the trade conflict, now
entering its second year, as Trump agreed to Beijing’s request to delay one
round of tariff increases on $250 billion worth of goods for two weeks, until
Oct 15, after China agreed to spare some US products from its
retaliation.
China added that it was “making enquiries” about buying American
farm products including big-ticket items like pork and soybeans, not on its
previous list of spared goods.
“It is expected that China will be buying large amounts of our
agricultural products!” Trump tweeted.
American farmers have borne the brunt of the US-China trade spat,
especially after US soy exports collapsed last year, virtually wiping out
foreign markets farmers had spent years cultivating.
Trump has previously accused Beijing of backsliding on promises to
increase purchases of US farm goods and has offered billions in aid to farms
badly damaged in the trade war.
Senior US and Chinese officials are due to hold preliminary talks later
this month, in preparation for meetings in early October led by Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer.
Mnuchin said “we clearly didn’t make the progress we wanted to” at the
last meeting in Shanghai in late July, but he added: “I’m cautiously
optimistic. I take the Chinese in good faith that they want to come here with
a deal now.”
But he said Trump “is prepared to keep these tariffs in place. He’s
prepared to raise tariffs if we need to raise tariffs.”
Trump’s hardline trade advisor Peter Navarro said on CNN Thursday that the US is focused on addressing “seven acts of economic aggression” by China including “cyber-hacking of our computers to steal our business secrets, intellectual property theft” and “manipulation of the currency.”
Reducing America’s soaring trade deficit with China has long been a
principal aim in Trump’s trade battle with Beijing, but so far it has not led
to a reduction in the trade imbalance. In 2018, the US goods trade deficit
with China was $419.52 billion.
Trump has long viewed deficits as a defeat for the United States, arguing
that they amount to stealing — a position rejected by most economists.
Meanwhile the US president maintains that the protracted trade war is
damaging China more than the United States, and China is “eating the
tariffs.”
The US Treasury has taken in $66 billion in customs duties in the 11
months through August, 73 percent more than in the same period of the prior fiscal year — tariffs paid by American importers.
Experts have warned there are signs the US is also feeling the pinch, with
job creation slowing across major industries last month, and manufacturing
seeing a decided slowdown. — NNN-AGENCIES
