The Biden-Harris administration’s guiding principles, but also concerns, were discussed through a telephone exchange.
Chinese and US trade officials conducted the first telephone exchange since Joe Biden became president of the United States, the Chinese Commerce Ministry announced on Thursday.
Relations between Beijing and Washington deteriorated during the presidency of Donald Trump, which was marked by a trade conflict between the two major world powers.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke with Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative (USTR), in a “constructive exchange” and an “attitude of equality and mutual respect,” according to a ministry statement.
“Ambassador Tai spoke of the guiding principles of the Biden-Harris administration, focused on trade policies (…) while mentioning the issues of concern,” advanced, in a short statement, the office of the US representative of Commerce. Washington confirmed a “virtual meeting” and “sincere and pragmatic” exchanges.
It was the first exchange between Tai, who was appointed to this post last March, and Liu He, President Xi Jinping’s chief economic adviser and chief negotiator in the trade war.
The two countries signed an agreement in January 2020 aimed at ending two years of trade war, which contained the provisions on the protection of intellectual property and the conditions of technology transfer, great demands of the United States.
The agreement also provides that the two parties must hold stage meetings every six months.
But the new Biden administration announced in April that it would take stock of the promises made by China under this agreement.
China’s “ability” to honor its commitments to the United States is a “priority,” Tai said.
Commitments
In the framework of the trade agreement, China promised to increase by at least 200,000 million dollars in 2020 and 2021 the purchases of American products and services to try to reduce the imbalance of the trade balance, very favorable to the Asian giant.
But Beijing, at the end of the first quarter of 2021, had only made between 61% and 75% of the planned purchases, according to a study by Chad Brown, a researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), conducted with trade data. published by the two countries.
The so-called “phase 1” trade agreement maintained US tariffs of 25% on a range of Chinese goods and industrial components representing $ 250 billion, and Chinese retaliation measures for more than $ 100 billion on imports from the United States. .
The US administration declared in March that it is not willing to lift the tariffs, although it said it was willing to negotiate with Beijing.
The tariffs were introduced to “remedy an unbalanced and unfair trade situation,” stated Katherine Tai, before adding that the suspension of these rates could have a negative impact on the US economy.
