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US, China Claim Framework on Trade Deal06/11 06:08
Senior U.S. and Chinese negotiators have agreed on a framework to get their
trade negotiations back on track after a series of disputes that threatened to
derail them, both sides have said.
LONDON (AP) -- Senior U.S. and Chinese negotiators have agreed on a
framework to get their trade negotiations back on track after a series of
disputes that threatened to derail them, both sides have said.
The announcement came at the end of two days of talks in the British capital
that wrapped up late Tuesday.
The meetings appeared to focus on finding a way to resolve disputes over
mineral and technology exports that had shaken a fragile truce on trade reached
in Geneva last month. It's not clear whether any progress was made on the more
fundamental differences over China's sizeable trade surplus with the United
States.
"First we had to get sort of the negativity out and now we can go forward,"
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters after the meetings.
Asian stock markets rose Wednesday after the agreement was announced.
The talks followed a phone call between President Donald Trump and Chinese
leader Xi Jinping last week to try to calm the waters.
Li Chenggang, a vice minister of commerce and China's international trade
representative, said the two sides had agreed in principle on a framework for
implementing the consensus reached on the phone call and at the talks on
Geneva, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Further details, including any plans for a potential next round of talks,
were not immediately available.
Li and Wang Wentao, China's commerce minister, were part of the delegation
led by Vice Premier He Lifeng. They met with Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott
Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at Lancaster House, a
200-year-old mansion near Buckingham Palace.
Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator, said the disputes had
frittered away 30 of the 90 days the two sides have to try to resolve their
disputes.
They agreed in Geneva to a 90-day suspension of most of the 100%-plus
tariffs they had imposed on each other in an escalating trade war that sparked
fears of recession. The World Bank, citing a rise in trade barriers, cut its
projections Tuesday for U.S. and global economic growth this year.
"The U.S. and China lost valuable time in restoring their Geneva
agreements," said Cutler, now vice president at the Asia Society Policy
Institute. "Now, only sixty days remain to address issues of concern, including
unfair trade practices, excess capacity, transshipment and fentanyl."
Since the Geneva talks, the U.S. and China have exchanged angry words over
advanced semiconductors that power artificial intelligence, visas for Chinese
students at American universities and rare earth minerals that are vital to
carmakers and other industries.
China, the world's biggest producer of rare earths, has signaled it may
speed up the issuing of export licenses for the elements. Beijing, in turn,
wants the U.S. to lift restrictions on Chinese access to the technology used to
make advanced semiconductors.
Lutnick said that resolving the rare earths issue is a fundamental part of
the agreed-upon framework, and that the U.S. will remove measures it had
imposed in response. He did not specify which measures.
"When they approve the licenses, then you should expect that our export
implementation will come down as well," he said.
Cutler said it would be unprecedented for the U.S. to negotiate on its
export controls, which she described as an irritant that China has been raising
for nearly 20 years.
"By doing so, the U.S. has opened a door for China to insist on adding
export controls to future negotiating agendas," she said.
In Washington, a federal appeals court agreed Tuesday to let the government
keep collecting tariffs that Trump has imposed not just on China but also on
other countries worldwide while the administration appeals a ruling against his
signature trade policy.
Trump said earlier that he wants to "open up China," the world's dominant
manufacturer, to U.S. products.
"If we don't open up China, maybe we won't do anything," Trump said at the
White House. "But we want to open up China."
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