China and U.S. Trade Talks Resume in Washington

Earlier this week, President Trump threatened to increase current tariffs from 10% to 25% additional duty on $200 billion of Chinese imports starting on Friday, May 10, 2019 if talks don’t go as desired.  China’s lead negotiator, Vice-Premier Liu He is on his way to the United States with plans to reach a last minute deal with President Trump’s team after being accused of reneging on previous agreements and despite Trump’s decision to increase tariffs once again.

China and U.S. Trade Talks

After being asked what the previous commitments were that China was reneging on in an interview on NPR.org, Rob Schmitz, NPR’s Shanghai correspondent, replies, “Well, we don’t know for sure, but we have an inkling of what they are. One of them is this enforcement mechanism that the U.S. wants to impose on China to make sure that China lives up to its promises. And of course, for China, that might infringe on its sovereignty, so that’s a big sticking point. Another one is that the U.S. has been demanding that China make structural changes to its economy. And of course, that would weaken the power of China’s Communist Party, which, of course, is the government of China. So that is a no-go, as well.”

 

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