The United States Trade Representative (USTR), Katherine Tai, held talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, on Friday night, to discuss Chinese business practices that Washington deems unfair and "forge" A relationship "responsable".
This was the second meeting between the two countries’ top trade negotiators after bilateral relations were seriously affected under former US President Donald Trump.
Katherine Tai and Liu He had already had a first contact in May.
Friday’s talk was "a opportunity for the United States and China to commit to forging a business relationship that is managed responsibly, because it affects not only the populations of our countries, but the whole world"a USTR official noted on condition of anonymity.
"The two parties had pragmatic, frank and constructive exchanges"the official Xinhua agency said. Tai detailed the concerns of the United States "in relation to China’s policies and practices that harm American workers, farmers, and businesses"noted the USTR.
The Joe Biden administration claims that the huge state subsidies from China for domestic companies, theft of intellectual property and other factors create great inequality in trade.
These practices have widened the United States’ trade deficit with China. In 2019, the year before the pandemic, it was $ 344 billion in goods alone, according to data from the United States Department of Commerce.
In the first eight months of this year, it reached $ 218.9 billion, according to data released Tuesday.
American interests
During the meeting, it was also "they evaluated" progress made by China in implementing the trade agreement "Phase 1", which was signed in January 2020, with the Trump administration.
Katherine Tai and Liu He "agreed that both parties would consult on some issues that were pending"said a statement.
Unlike Trump, who brought out heavy artillery against Beijing, introduced punitive tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods, Tai said earlier this week that the Biden administration had no intention of "inflame trade tensions" with the Asian giant.
However, he noted that Washington intended to enforce the commitments made in the agreement signed with Trump.
In the "Phase 1" of the bilateral treaty, China pledged to buy an additional $ 200 billion worth of US products in two years, including agricultural, energy and manufacturing products.
The objective was to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries. Some points of the agreement were not achieved in part due to the pandemic.
Regarding the US $ 370,000 million of tariffs, Tai launched a procedure this week to exclude certain products.
More than a gesture of goodwill towards Beijing, he explained that it was about granting exemptions "case by case" to US companies that do not have an alternative source of supply.
Beijing "negotiated the cancellation of the customs fee hike and additional penalties"Xinhua said on Saturday, without elaborating. Small and medium-sized companies have been warning for months that these fees threaten their survival.
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