China, US will ‘come up with something’ to defuse trade war, Hong Kong scholar predicts

Vice-ministerial level delegation from the United States in Beijing for two days of face-to-face talks on Monday and Tuesday

Lawrence J. Lau ‘confident’ truce agreed between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump will lead to further de-escalation of tensions

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Deputy US trade representative Jeffrey Gerrish (centre) is leading the vice-ministerial level delegation from the United States in Beijing this week. Photo: AP

Published: 2:00pm, 7 Jan 2019Updated: 11:38pm, 7 Jan 2019

Beijing and Washington are expected to reach a “concrete” trade agreement before March’s deadline to de-escalate trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, according to a Hong Kong scholar with close ties to Beijing.

Lawrence J. Lau, an economics professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and former member of China’s top political advisory body, previously correctly predicted a “truce” would follow the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Argentina last month.

Lau made the latest comments a day before China announced a vice-ministerial level delegation from the United States led by deputy US trade representative Jeffrey Gerrish would fly to Beijing for two days of face-to-face talks on Monday and Tuesday.

“I am pretty confident that they will come up with something,” Lau said, with the 90-day trade war truce agreed between Xi and Trump set to expire on March 1.

“There will be something concrete at the end … and if there’s a settlement, there shouldn’t be any [additional] tariffs.”

In addition to promises of buying more energy and agricultural products from the US, China may also make other commitments to soothe American concerns, Lau said.

These may include China reaffirming the agreement reached with the previous Obama administration that Beijing will prohibit state-sponsored cyber theft of intellectual property and trade secrets for commercial purposes.