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On January 31st, US President Donald Trump said that “China’s top trade negotiators,” are in the US meeting with representatives for talks to end the trade war.
China’s top trade negotiators are in the U.S. meeting with our representatives. Meetings are going well with good intent and spirit on both sides. China does not want an increase in Tariffs and feels they will do much better if they make a deal. They are correct. I will be……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
….meeting with their top leaders and representatives today in the Oval Office. No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi, and I, meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points. Very comprehensive transaction….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
….China’s representatives and I are trying to do a complete deal, leaving NOTHING unresolved on the table. All of the many problems are being discussed and will be hopefully resolved. Tariffs on China increase to 25% on March 1st, so all working hard to complete by that date!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019
The talks were also announced by a White House statement on January 28th.
Trump said that progress is being made, but a final deal would only happen after he and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet “in the near future.”
The deadline the two leaders agreed on during the G20 summit Argentina on December 1st, 2018 is to end on March 1st. Past that deadline, tariffs on China would increase to 25%, “so all working hard to complete by that date!”
On January 31st, Chinese state outlet Xinhua reported that “the latest round of China-U.S. trade talks made important progress for the current stage, and the two sides had candid, specific and constructive discussions,” according to the Chinese delegation.
The two sides discussed the topics of trade balance, technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), non-tariff barriers, service sector, agriculture and enforcement mechanism, as well as certain issues of particular concern for the Chinese side.
The talks were led by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, with the participation of dozens of senior officials from both governments. The US included Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Larry Kudlow, and Assistant to the President for Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro.
The two sides have agreed to take effective measures to promote a more balanced development of bilateral trade. China will make “active efforts to expand imports from the United States in the sectors of agriculture, energy, manufacturing and services, which will help China’s pursuit of high-quality economic development and meet the people’s demand for a better life.”
“Both sides believe that it is very important to establish an effective two-way enforcement mechanism, so as to ensure all measures agreed upon through consultations will be implemented. They have reached consensus in principle on the framework and basic elements of the enforcement mechanism, and will continue to hammer out more details.”
Thus, it appears that at least on the surface, progress is being made. It will become clear whether there is an end in sight of the trade after the alleged Trump-Xi meeting “in the near future.
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Trump is lying, he thought they would submit when he took Meng Wanzhou hostage, but they won’t, it just made them angry.
The language is positive. But, for instance, if the US tries to push China to the point that Beijing sees its economic position undermined, which could in the long time undermine the prosperity of her people, leading to internal instability – possibly collapse – trade talks will fail. The two countries will eventually go to war. That’s the pattern of history. The signs are ominous. https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
China should dump is $ 1,000,000,000,000 (I hope that is 1 trillion) of treasury bonds, which will cause the dollar to collapse. Could that stave off a war ?, in my view it could, but on the flip side it could cause it. OK fuck it, I don’t know what I am talking about.
There will be a time when the US is just another ‘has been’ empire. The sooner the better I think, Al.
I differ in my view there, as I have never thought of the US being an empire.
Fair Point.
I once said that on Briebart news and wow the reaction was fiercely against me. The US in general seem to be so ignorant of what their own politicians and Corporations are doing.