In quest to cut trade balance with China, Trump misses opportunity to pressure Beijing over opening up of economy
Washington may have made the China trade issue its highest priority, but the administration remains divided on how to manage relations with Beijing
Were last week’s US-China trade talks in Beijing a first step towards some kind of negotiated settlement, or were they a first formalisation of hostilities?
That question was posed over the weekend by Eswar Prasad at Cornell and the Brookings Institution, and like Prasad, I have a nervous feeling we were watching a first military skirmish rather than any serious engagement in negotiation.
The first source of suspicion was the very size of the Trump team that flew into Beijing. By throwing into the fray a seven-man negotiating team that included Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, maverick adviser Peter Navarro who heads the White House’s National Trade Council, and the head of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, US President Donald Trump without a doubt brought out every big gun he has in his armoury.
The signal was clear that Trump is giving the China trade issue the highest priority. But at the same time, the size and composition of the “team” powerfully illustrated the divisions across the US administration on how to manage trade relations in general, and with China in particular. Few could be as far apart on economic policy as Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs boss, and Peter Navarro, author of Death by China.
As the meetings ended, Chinese officials politely described the talks as “candid and efficient”. The Xinhua news agency noted that “rather large differences” remained.