Beijing meeting many US requests, but no deal struck yet
China’s Foreign Ministry has denied reports that China is willing to cut trade surplus by US$ 200 billion dollars. Still, talks are "constructive".
Washington (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Larry Kudlow, a top White House official, spoke to journalists yesterday about two days of high-level meetings between China and the United States that are designed to stave off a trade war.
He said that Beijing is “meeting many of our demands” but ““There is no deal yet to be sure, and it’s probably going to take a while to process, but they’re coming to play. I believe they want to make a deal.”
Liu He, Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser, is in Washington at the helm of a Chinese delegation.
Yesterday China’s Ministry of Commerce scrapped an anti-dumping levy imposed on US sorghum, which would have virtually ended imports.
The official reason is that the measure would have damaged Chinese farmers, who use it as animal feed.
By contrast, reports that Beijing offered Washington a package of measures to cut its trade surplus with the United States by US$ 200 billion a year have not been confirmed.
Yesterday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman called the suggestion a “rumour”. However, he did note that “the negotiations are ongoing and they are constructive”.
Frustrated by a trade imbalance of US$ 375 billion dollars with China, the United States and its president have long accused Beijing of propping up its export, of failing to protect copyrights and of stealing or of forcing the transfer of technology in order to do business in China.
For this reason, President Donald Trump has proposed a series of duties worth hundreds of billions of dollars on Chinese products.
As a countermeasure, China imposed levies on American products.
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