Donald Trump calls Xi Jinping for trade result that ‘benefits American businesses’
While the US president pushed the America-first view, China’s leader called for continued communication to achieve a ‘mutually beneficial’ result
Trade talks between the US and China must lead to an outcome that “benefits American businesses and workers”, US President Donald Trump told his counterpart, Xi Jinping, in a call on Tuesday.
Xi in turn called for continued communication during their escalating trade dispute to achieve a “mutually beneficial” result rather than a much-dreaded trade war.
The call - which also addressed diplomatic breakthroughs regarding North Korea – came amid a flurry of bilateral diplomatic activity aimed at averting disruption to the world’s largest trade relationship, as well as signs that trade flows might have already been curtailed.
Trump “affirmed his commitment to ensuring that the trade and investment relationship between the United States and China is balanced and benefits American businesses and workers”, according to a readout of the call provided by the White House.
Washington’s bottom line seems to be ending China’s industrial policy and I see virtually no way Beijing is going to agree to that
Xi, meanwhile, said that “the teams of both sides can maintain communication and strive to find a solution to the problems that exist, so as to achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results”, according to a report in Chinese state media.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week led a delegation of seven top economic advisers, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, to Beijing for a two-day visit with a team of Chinese counterparts led by Vice-Premier Liu He.
The two sides laid out their demands at the meeting, but no agreement or consensus was reached. Talks will resume next week when Liu visits Washington.
Some analysts, including David Lampton, professor and director of China Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS and the former president of the National Committee on US-China Relations, have said the close timing of the high-level bilateral talks is cause for optimism, but that Beijing will not likely concede on at least one important US demand.