Within Trump’s Trade Factions, Nations Look for a Friendly Face

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The Trump administration’s reversals on trade have been seen in China as a sign of instability. “In Chinese culture, when a political leader says something, you mean something,” an analyst in Shanghai said.CreditAndy Wong/Associated Press

By Keith Bradsher

June 2, 2018

SHANGHAI — Wilbur Ross, the United States commerce secretary, arrived in Beijing on Saturday for a weekend visit aimed at averting a potentially punishing trade war. The big question for China: If they reach an agreement with him, will President Trump stick to it?

As the United States challenges Europe, China, Canada, Mexico and much of the rest of the world over trade, deep factionalism within the Trump administration has flummoxed American allies and rivals alike. The White House strikes a conciliatory tone one day and a militant one the next, often depending on which Trump advisers are in favor.

Increasingly, leaders in other countries are asking who is calling the shots: the globalists, the nationalists, the trade hawks or someone else?

To a degree, the mixed messages reflect the negotiating tactics of a president who likes to keep the other side off balance. But the inconsistency has spurred international leaders to court Trump officials who they think will offer a sympathetic ear, rather than the White House as a whole — a divide-and-conquer approach that could make trade deals harder to strike. It has also eroded the belief among many leaders that the Trump administration will keep its word.

“We have to believe that at some point their common sense will prevail,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said in a tweet, referring to the American public, after the Trump administration’s latest move on tariffs. “But we see no sign of that in this action today by the U.S. administration.”

Even the Chinese government, which typically couches even its most aggressive statements in oblique diplomatic terms, is increasingly talking about the administration with the rhetorical equivalent of an eye roll.

Within the Trump administration, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, left, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross have been courted by Chinese officials who see them as potentially sympathetic to their arguments on trade.CreditShawn Thew/EPA, via Shutterstock

“In international relations, every time you change your face and turn your back is another loss and squandering of your country’s credibility,” Hua Chunying, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.

Just in the past week, American trading partners have grappled with a new wave of aggressive moves. On Thursday, in the decision that prompted Mr. Trudeau’s tweet, the Trump administration said it wouldn’t exempt Canada, Mexico or the European Union from its new steel and aluminum tariffs, after postponing the move twice.

On China, the Trump administration said it would move ahead with tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese-made goods. Just a week before, a senior official had suggested they would be suspended. American officials also walked back the possibility that Mr. Trump would lift crippling trade limits placed on ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company, for violating American trade restrictions on North Korea and Iran.

Foreign negotiators are now seeking friendly faces within the White House in hopes that those people’s arguments end up carrying the day.

Chinese officials have aggressively tried to woo Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Mr. Ross, say people familiar with the Chinese negotiating position, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are sensitive. Both men have extensive business and Wall Street backgrounds, and Chinese officials believe they would be receptive to arguments that China’s big trade surplus with the United States stems largely from economic factors rather than unfair trade practices.

The Chinese officials have courted Mr. Mnuchin, Mr. Ross and their staffs with small group meetings and telephone conference calls, the people familiar with the Chinese position said. They have put less effort into reaching out to Robert E. Lighthizer, the administration’s top trade official, or Peter Navarro, a Trump adviser who co-wrote a book called “Death by China,” to the same degree. In essence, Chinese officials are wooing Trump administration officials they see as globalists while trying to isolate those they see as hard-liners.

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Trade officials in Europe see Robert E. Lighthizer, the administration’s top trade official, as a potentially friendly ear, in part because of his tough stance on China.CreditTom Brenner/The New York Times

China can justify that stance by pointing to rank. By diplomatic protocol, Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. Ross are more senior, although neither runs an agency with direct responsibility for trade negotiations.

The people familiar with Chinese economic policymaking say that Beijing officials became accustomed to addressing major trade and currency concerns through Treasury, which took a leading role on Chinese economic issues during the presidencies of Barack Obama and George W. Bush. But Mr. Trump has largely abandoned that framework, elevating Mr. Lighthizer and obscuring the question of who is running trade policy.

Conversely, European trade officials feel they have a friendlier audience in Mr. Lighthizer. They believe he has focused most of his attention on China, whose government is managing an ambitious project to build up sophisticated manufacturing and high-tech industries that could someday rival American, European and Japanese competitors. Officials in Europe believe that focus could make him more amenable to a deal to help form a united American-European front against China’s industrial ambitions.

European officials are frostier when it comes to Mr. Ross, and to Mr. Trump himself, according to a senior European diplomatic official who requested anonymity because the discussions are private. They see the two as narrowly focused on getting European countries to buy more American goods over the short haul, the official said — a strategy they perceive as aimed at giving Mr. Ross and Mr. Trump photo opportunities at American steel factories.

European negotiators regard that stance as an unsophisticated, zero-sum view of trade, the official said, in which the country that sells more goods to its partner is the winner — an outlook that makes a trade deal difficult to achieve.

Even when foreign trade officials wring deals out of their relationships with individual members of the administration, the agreements can quickly fall apart, as China has found to its frustration.

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The Trump administration’s mixed messages about ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company penalized by the United States for violating trade restrictions on North Korea and Iran, have been a source of frustration for Beijing.CreditGilles Sabrié/Bloomberg

Last year, Chinese officials presented a plan to Mr. Ross under which it would cut its voluminous steel capacity in return for avoiding proposed tariffs. Mr. Ross supported it, but it did not satisfy Mr. Trump, and the administration ended up imposing tariffs on steel imports from many countries, including China.

Then, during Mr. Trump’s visit to China in November, Mr. Ross orchestrated deals that administration officials claimed were worth $250 billion, though their true economic value was far less. The peace that effort bought didn’t last. The United States has since ramped up its criticism of China’s industrial ambitions and threatened to impose tariffs on more than $150 billion in Chinese goods.

China’s efforts to court Mr. Mnuchin have also led to frustration, despite initial signs that they would pay off.

Mr. Mnuchin has suggested publicly that Chinese moves to open up the country’s car market and financial services to international competition could be enough to allay the Trump administration’s trade concerns. Two weeks ago, Mr. Mnuchin said the Trump administration was “putting the trade war on hold.” On the thorny issue of ZTE, Mr. Mnuchin said that the United States hadn’t meant to “put ZTE out of business.”

Then last week, following intensifying pressure from Congress, the Trump administration said it would push ahead with tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods and signaled a potentially tougher stance on ZTE. Mr. Navarro also publicly contradicted Mr. Mnuchin’s comments about suspending the trade war.

The shifts appear to have only stiffened the resolve of American trading partners. After the United States imposed tariffs, Canada and Europe responded quickly on Thursday with their own threats of retaliation. Chinese officials, meanwhile, are still vowing to go through with their planned industrial upgrade, called Made in China 2025, which they see as essential to the country’s security and well-being.

In China, in public discussions and on social media, Mr. Trump’s shifts often play as a sign of instability. Chinese officials, perhaps more than their counterparts elsewhere, strive to strike a consistent message to give the world the impression of a unified government.

“In Chinese culture, when a political leader says something, you mean something,” said Gary Liu, the president of the China Financial Reform Institute, a research group in Shanghai. “China is very upset about the changing attitudes.”

Follow Keith Bradsher on Twitter: @KeithBradsher.

Peter S. Goodman contributed reporting from London and Ana Swanson from Washington. Ailin Tang contributed research.