U.S. and Chinese officials on Wednesday wrapped up high-level talks without announcing any breakthroughs on the contentious economic issues that divide the two countries. U.S. officials fell short of securing ambitious gains in trade with China and news conferences planned to cap off the event were canceled as the United States and China wrapped up 100 days of trade talks.
The daylong talks at the Treasury Department began with prickly comments from both sides. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said the world’s two biggest economies need to cooperate and warned that “confrontation will immediately damage the interests of both.”
The United States unsuccessfully pressed China to make a substantial commitment to cut its steel production. U.S. officials also asked China to do more to reduce its trade surplus with the United States and open its market for agricultural products and financial services.
“As President Trump has made clear at Mar-a-Lago, the fundamental asymmetry in our trade relationship and market access must be addressed. We must create more balance in our trade by increasing exports of made-in-America goods to China,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said during the talks.
In a statement released after the talks, the Treasury Department said that China had “acknowledged our shared objective to reduce the trade deficit which both sides will work cooperatively to achieve.”
After taking office, the Trump administration reached an agreement with China to continue the high-level meetings that were begun in the George W. Bush administration and continued in the Obama administration.
A one-day session on security issues was held last month. The session this week covered economic issues and included Mnuchin, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a White House adviser.
