Status: 05.10.2021 10:36 a.m.
The US government is unwavering in the dispute with China, but wants to start talking again. Beijing sees this as a “positive signal”, but also warns against further coercive measures.
After a speech by US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on the trade tensions with China, the leadership in Beijing remains open to talks. Experts in China see a “positive signal” in the speech, reports the state newspaper “Global Times”, which is often understood as the English-speaking mouthpiece of the Chinese leadership. The request of Tai for “frank talks” could be an indication that the US is ready to solve the trade dispute more pragmatically, the “Global Times” quoted Gao Lingyun from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Agreed goals not achieved
In her speech, Tai emphasized that the US is about “continued coexistence” based on respect and norms. “We have to be direct and honest about the challenges we face and the great risk of not facing them,” said Tai. However, if China does not comply with the rules, the US government must use all instruments that are available to it in the interests of the US economy. It did not rule out new special tariffs against China.
Specifically, it is about a partial agreement from 2019, in which China had promised to buy goods worth 200 billion US dollars in the USA by the end of 2021, especially oil and gas, industrial goods and agricultural products. China has not kept these commitments so far, Tai said.
If the agreed goals have not yet been achieved, it is due to the corona pandemic, the “Global Times” quotes another expert. If the US government under Joe Biden were to tighten the coercive measures against China, it would “trigger an intensified confrontation and backfire for the US,” said the expert.
Few alternatives for the USA
The US government’s plans also showed that punitive tariffs were not having the desired effect, Lingyun said in the Global Times. The US has not found any alternatives for Chinese products. Punitive tariffs also harmed consumers and manufacturers in the USA.
China and the USA have been in a trade dispute since June 2018. The then US President Donald Trump had introduced punitive tariffs on imports from China amounting to 50 billion US dollars. A year later, he imposed punitive tariffs on almost all imported products from China valued at US $ 500 billion. China, for its part, also responded with new tariffs.
US President Biden criticized the special tariffs in the 2020 election campaign as “harmful to US consumers, farmers and manufacturers”. He promised to lift the tariffs if he were elected. The new administration has discovered that China’s unfair trade practices are damaging the American economy, it is now said.