‘Mountain of mistrust’ blocking US-China interim trade war deal
- Former US negotiators say lack of credibility is hampering efforts on both sides
- Leaders from both countries should ‘take a step back’ to find the right pathway
A lack of trust between Beijing and Washington is hampering the conclusion of an interim trade deal, with China doubting whether it can rely on any agreement made with President Donald Trump and the US unconvinced Beijing will deliver on promised reforms, according to former US government officials.
Christopher Hill, former US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said that both nations recognised the need to get the “phase one” deal done, but he warned that both had “a mountain of mistrust” standing in the way of an agreement.
“Mistrust is the most difficult thing to remove from the negotiation,” said Hill, a longtime negotiator who represented the US between 2005 and 2007 in the six-party talks to press North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapon programme.
“China’s concerned that they can’t really reach a deal because they can’t rely on it. On the US side, there is a perception that China also has credibility problems,” Hill told the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of an economic forum in Sanya, in the southern Chinese province of Hainan over the weekend.
“If I’m China, I would be concerned whether the deal Trump agrees to is the one he agreed to tomorrow and the next day. If I’m Trump, I would see the big problem for me is to convince China that what I offer is really what I will stand by [and] that is my word,” he said.