Trump Talks About Economic Intervention Concerns With President of China
President Donald Trump expressed concern to Chinese President Xi Jinping last week that China’s policies related to economic intervention, industry, agriculture, technology and cybersecurity are impacting U.S. jobs and exports, according to a White House statement of their April 6-7 meeting (here). “The President underscored the need for China to take concrete steps to level the playing field for American workers, stressing repeatedly the need for reciprocal market access,” it said. The White House also noted that the leaders agreed to establish a new four-pronged bilateral negotiating framework, including a Comprehensive Economic Dialogue. Former President Barack Obama conducted talks under a “Strategic and Economic Dialogue” with meetings that alternated between the countries’ capitals year-to-year.
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During an April 7 press briefing (here), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said there "was definitely an acknowledgement" by China that "we do need to get a more balanced trade environment." Mnuchin declined to say whether the Trump administration plans to label China a currency manipulator, noting that the administration will address that issue when Treasury releases its semiannual currency report, expected this month. During the briefing, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the U.S. and China have implemented a "100-day plan" for trade issues to work on, with an overall U.S. mission to boost exports to China and reduce the current U.S. trade deficit with the nation. "It was a very wide range of products that we discussed, not a particularly limited one," Ross said. "And the most interesting thing to me was they expressed an interest in reducing their net trade balance because of the impact it’s having on money supply and inflation. That's the first time I’ve heard them say that in a bilateral context."