[The Trump administration has taken a hard line against China since the president took office, and the United States has made a series of moves focused on trade, including threatening tariffs on Chinese products and restrictions on Chinese investment flowing into the country. Among the claims that the United States has made is that Beijing has unfairly stolen intellectual property, especially as China pushes ahead in developing the next generation of wireless technology known as 5G.]
By Ana Swanson
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Shipping containers at a
port in Shanghai. The United States’s trade deficit with
China reached $375.2
billion last year, an imbalance that has drawn
the ire of President
Trump. CreditAly Song/Reuters
|
WASHINGTON
— China will increase its
purchase of American goods and services in order to reduce the
multibillion-dollar trade imbalance with the United States, the two countries
said in a joint statement Saturday.
How much the imbalance will be reduced
remains to be seen.
Trump administration officials had said
during negotiations this week that China was prepared to make up to $200
billion in additional purchases. Notably absent from Saturday’s announcement
were any dollar figures — or a sense of the scale of the agreed-upon increases.
The White House said that China had committed
to buying more agriculture and energy exports, but noted that American
officials would at some point go to China to work out the details of their
agreement.
“To meet the growing consumption needs of the
Chinese people and the need for high-quality economic development, China will
significantly increase purchases of United States goods and services,” said the
statement. “This will help support growth and employment in the United States.”
The Trump administration has taken a hard
line against China since the president took office, and the United States has
made a series of moves focused on trade, including threatening tariffs on
Chinese products and restrictions on Chinese investment flowing into the
country. Among the claims that the United States has made is that Beijing has
unfairly stolen intellectual property, especially as China pushes ahead in
developing the next generation of wireless technology known as 5G.
Recently, both countries have shown a
willingness to compromise to reduce trade tensions, and Chinese officials came
to Washington this week for a series of talks with various cabinet officials,
including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The announcement Saturday made no reference
to whether the Trump administration would walk away from tariffs imposed this
year on roughly $50 billion of Chinese imports. But Liu He, an economic adviser
who led the negotiations for China, suggested that both sides would stop
recently imposed tariffs, according to China’s Xinhua News Agency.
Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for
American Manufacturing, an industry group, said that judging from the
announcement, the talks didn’t appear to have moved American businesses toward
a level playing field in China.
“Sometimes it’s better to walk away from the
negotiating table to reinforce the point to China that our resolve is strong,”
he said. “We need more details, but I’m not encouraged by the direction these
talks are headed.”
As the negotiations this week wound down,
mixed signals emerged about the progress the two sides had made.
“They are meeting many of our demands,” Larry
Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters Friday as he
discussed the possibility of “at least $200 billion” in additional purchases.
Chinese media contested the concessions. The
Foreign Ministry denied Friday that it had offered to reduce its trade deficit
with the United States by the $200 billion amount, and on Saturday the
state-run People’s Daily, considered a mouthpiece for the Chinese government,
called the reports “a misunderstanding.” The trade deficit with China reached
$375.2 billion last year.
American officials have clashed in recent
days over what to offer Beijing in return for increasing its purchases of
American goods and services.
One issue is whether the United States should
relax so-called export controls on certain products and technology, according
to two people who were familiar with the negotiations but were not authorized
to speak publicly about them. The controls determine where — and in what
quantity — products with military applications or advanced technologies, like
semiconductors that power smartphones and computers, can be exported to other
countries.
Mr. Mnuchin, who has been leading the
negotiations, has pushed for relaxing the rules in order to forestall the
possibility of a trade war and secure China’s purchase of additional goods from
the United States in the coming years. Mr. Mnuchin’s plan has faced stiff
opposition from Defense Department officials, who fear such sales could
compromise American national security, one of the people said.
The Defense Department did not immediately
respond to a request for comment, nor did the Treasury Department.
Another point of contention has been whether
to offer relief for ZTE, a Chinese telecom firm. The Trump administration
penalized ZTE for violating American sanctions against North Korea and Iran,
steps that have effectively shuttered the company’s business and put tens of
thousands of Chinese jobs at risk.
After taking a tough stance on China in
recent months, President Trump has appeared open to relaxing penalties against
ZTE, posting to Twitter last weekend that too many jobs had been lost.
The comments provoked a sharp backlash from
hard-liners within the administration and lawmakers across the political
spectrum, who saw concessions to the Chinese on ZTE as infringing on the rule
of law and potentially endangering national security.
Any breaks offered by the United States could
backfire with economic nationalists, who have viewed the imposition of tariffs
and investment restrictions against China as the fulfillment of one of Mr.
Trump’s core campaign promises.
“It’s imperative that we do not back off one
iota, and certainly not for more happy talk about continuing dialogue,” said
Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist.
Mark Landler contributed reporting from
Washington, and Keith Bradsher from Beijing.
