China Will `Significantly' Boost US Purchases. By How Much is the Question.

China will “significantly increase purchases” of U.S. goods, the White House said as Beijing’s special envoy at talks in Washington declared a trade war has been averted between the world’s two largest economies.

A joint statement released by the White House following the talks didn’t place a dollar figure on the increased purchases by China, or address a comment by President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser suggesting Beijing had agreed to slash its annual trade surplus with the U.S. by $200 billion.

Vice Premier Liu He, a special envoy of China’s President Xi Jinping, told reporters in Washington that talks with U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, ended with a pledge not to engage in a trade war, according to a Xinhua news agency report.

Liu said the two sides agreed to stop “slapping tariffs’ on each other, Xinhua reported. Liu said his trip to the U.S. had been positive, pragmatic, constructive and productive. Trade cooperation would be enhanced in such areas as energy, agriculture, health care, high-tech products and finance, a “win-win” choice for both nations.

China agreed to “meaningful increases in U.S. agriculture and energy exports,” the White House said, adding that the U.S. will send a team to China to work out the details.

Trade Deficit

“There was a consensus on taking effective measures to substantially reduce the U.S. trade deficit in goods with China,” the White House said.

The delegations also discussed expanding trade in manufactured goods, and each side agreed to strengthen cooperation on intellectual property. China will “advance relevant amendments” to its laws and and regulations in that area, including its patent law, the White House said.

The White House joint statement didn’t mention additional U.S. demands, including a halt to subsidies and other government support for the Made in China 2025 plan that targets strategic industries from robotics to new-energy vehicles. China had made its own demands, including giving equal treatment to its investment, and warned U.S. companies may be excluded from measures to open its economy.

“This round of talks is generally positive,” said Li Yong, a senior fellow at the China Association of International Trade in Beijing, adding that the U.S. still may take a harder line on reviews of Chinese investments. “Trade tensions will ease gradually, but there still could be frictions.”

On Friday morning, Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters that China had offered to reduce its annual trade surplus with the U.S. by “at least $200 billion.”

“The number’s a good number,” Kudlow said outside the White House.

Conciliatory Stance

Earlier, two posts on Chinese state social media disputed a report that China planned to slash its trade surplus by the extent demanded by Washington through increased imports of U.S. products. A foreign ministry official also played down the suggestion.

In a sign that the Chinese government is seeking a conciliatory stance, it announced on Friday it was ending an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into imports of U.S. sorghum, citing “public interest.” That move came days after it restarted a review of Qualcomm Inc.’s application to acquire NXP Semiconductors NV.

ZTE Silence

The statement didn’t mention ZTE Corp., the Chinese telecom company that Trump a week ago ordered the Commerce Department to get help back into business, reversing a ban on accessing American technology that would have effectively put it out of business.

Kudlow said Friday that ZTE may need to change its management to win a reprieve from U.S. sanctions that shut it off from key parts suppliers.

— With assistance by Ros Krasny, Miao Han, John McCluskey, Saleha Mohsin, Justin Sink, Jenny Leonard, and Jeff Kearns

Let's block ads! (Why?)