In a potential relaxation of the deadly trade war between China and the United States, Beijing said on Friday that it was planning to speak with the Trump administration after repeated attempts by senior US officials to start negotiations.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that China “assesses” the American offer to speak, but it said that Beijing’s position remained consistent: it will only engage in negotiations if Washington first cancels its prices on Chinese products.
“If the United States does not correct its poor unilateral tariff measures, this means that the United States has no sincerity and will still damage mutual trust between the two parties,” said the ministry.
The signaling of China on its desire to speak intervenes when the prices already seem to have wreaked havoc on Chinese producers. An official report on manufacturing activities in April has shown that factories in China had experienced their clearest monthly slowdown in more than a year.
The two countries fought since President Trump increased the prices on Chinese products to a minimum of 145% last month, while omitting China from a 90 -day break on his prices which he granted to all the other countries. China has responded with its own prices extensions on American products, while preventing certain American companies from doing business in China and restoring exports of critical minerals on which American manufacturers count to do things like semiconductors, drones and cars.
The confrontation, which has doubled as a testaments between Mr. Trump and the first Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, rocked the world markets and accelerated a decoupling of the two biggest economies in the world.
Many countries are under increasing pressure to choose the parties, the Trump administration using American trade partners to restrict access to Chinese exports and Beijing threatening countermeasures against countries that comply.
We do not know what officials of the United States and China have been in contact to set up negotiations. Analysts said the two parties have different approaches to these discussions. Trump would prefer to take the lead and speak directly to Mr. Xi, but Chinese officials tend to prefer to negotiate details – and challenge an agreement – in advance, before the leaders meet.
“We know that China and the United States have contacts at work level,” Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai said. “The key is now that China hopes that the United States will give a clear signal that it is sincere in negotiations, then it can go from this type of contact working on formal negotiations. China has launched the ball in the United States.”
Complete the questions is the concern of Chinese officials that Trump could deny an agreement on a whim or even embarrass Mr. Xi in a confrontation, similar to the way President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was treated during a visit to the White House in February.
Faced with the spectrum of an prolonged commercial struggle, the propaganda of the Chinese state has entered high speed, holding the country for a “struggle” and calling people not to bow to American pressure.
Beijing has bet that the Trump administration will finally surrender due to political and financial pressure in the United States. Recent surveys show that most Americans are unhappy with Mr. Trump management of the US economy, who decreased in the first quarter after posting strong growth at the end of last year.
In a recognition of America’s dependence on Chinese manufacturing, the Trump administration exempted Chinese smartphones, computers, semiconductors and other electronics from reciprocal rates, although this decision can be temporary. And Tuesday, Trump signed two decrees by recovering prices on car manufacturers.
China also seems to consider exempting certain categories of its 125% prices on American products, including certain semiconductors, vital drugs and other health products.
Mr. Xi’s maneuvering room is somewhat limited by his nationalist image and a need to be considered as defying what Beijing has described as intimidation. It is also limited by the weakness of the Chinese economy, which was hampered by a real estate crisis and poor consumer confidence. Although the United States represents a share in narrowing of global exports in China, it remains the largest market at just under 15%.
And due to growing frustration in many countries on a low-market flow of Chinese exports, Chinese goods that would normally have gone to the United States cannot easily be diverted to other countries.
We do not know what type of trade agreement would both satisfy Mr. Trump and Mr. XI. China led a trade surplus of almost $ 300 billion with the United States last year, a massive gap that would be difficult to fill. A trade agreement aimed at approaching the imbalance, which was negotiated with China during the first Trump administration, exceeded, partly because of the cocovio pandemic.
