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FebAfter two extra days’ negotiation, the 7th round of high-level US-China Trade Talks closed in Washington D.C. on February 24, 2019.
According to the delegation, the two sides are expected to continue their work into the next stage in accordance with the instructions of the two countries' top leaders, and the negotiators also had made substantial progress on such specific issues as technology transfers, protection of intellectual property rights, non-tariff barriers, the service industry, agriculture and exchange rates. Moreover, President Donald Trump announced that the United States is planning to delay a menu of additional Chinese tariffs that were scheduled to begin on March 1.
The trade friction between the two primarily reflects America’s concerns for its self-defined interests on trade balance, structural differences between two economic models and national competitiveness in the future, especially the manufacturing competence.
Thus, the purposes for U.S. to launch the trade war are (1) reducing the bilateral trade deficit (2) establishing a mechanism to manage the increasing trade tensions (3) reaching a long-term and more specific agreement to further promote China’s market reform. Nevertheless, even a deal is made, the US will continue to focus on the structural problems, and nothing could be settled once and for all.
Trade war will only lead to a double-lose, thus to end it as soon as possible is what both China and the US want and need to do.
Both China and the US must accommodate to the realities that share no similarity with those in the 20th century. As the U.S. has been increasingly recognizing China as a strategic competitor, if both sides can solve their trade frictions through negotiation, there is still possibility to set bottom line for bilateral relations, which is no conflict and no confrontation. Economy and trade are still the ballast for US-China relations.
For China, maintaining stability is always the top priority. Both domestic economy and foreign investment require a stable environment to thrive. Therefore, China will continue to put efforts into ending the war along with promoting economic reform in order to create an ideal system for business growth. China will take advantage of the challenge posed by U.S. to further enact internal reform and eventually achieve high-quality development.
Cheng Dawei, Research Fellow of National Academy of Development and Strategy, Professor at School of Economics, RUC.
The original article was first published at:
http://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2019-02/26/nw.D110000gmrb_20190226_1-12.htm
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