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© Reuters. CHINA AGREES To IMPORT MORE OF U.S. PRODUCTS
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China has agreed to take measures to import more american products to reduce the trade deficit of the United States, today announced the two countries in a joint statement.
They do mention, however, the target of $ 200 billion reduction in the surplus, chinese, advanced a little earlier, by the white House.
Beijing and Washington promise to continue their discussion on the reduction of this surplus, close to 335 billion dollars per year, which threatens to give rise to a trade war.
“There is a consensus in favour of the implementation of effective measures to substantially reduce the trade deficit of Usa with China”, one can read in the press release.
“To meet the consumption needs of growing Chinese and to the need for economic development quality, China will dramatically increase its purchases of goods and services in the United States, which will help to support growth and employment in the United States”, continue the authors.
Beijing, they add, “will proceed with relevant amendments to its laws and regulations”, in particular on intellectual property, to provide for an increase in us imports.
The declaration was drafted at the end of negotiations Thursday and Friday in Washington in the presence of the chinese vice Premier Liu He.
Donald Trump, who has made the reduction of the trade deficit with China, one of the themes-the flagship of his election campaign, has therefore set the goal to $ 200 billion, failing which he threatens to apply new tariffs on certain categories of chinese products.
His economic advisor Larry Kudlow announced on Friday that its chinese representatives were engaged to do the necessary to achieve this. The information, which was announced a little earlier from u.s. sources, however, has been refuted by Beijing.
The joint press release is “a good example (of this report) winner-winner”, wrote Sunday, the official news agency New China in an analysis.
The measures announced will enable the United States to reduce their trade deficit by increasing their exports to China, she added, and China to diversify and improve the quality of its imports.
Beijing has always stood up to the “unreasonable demands” of Washington, says the New China news agency, for which a resolution of the commercial dispute between the two countries will be complicated and will take time.
A set of measures, which would be part of new commitments related to the protection of intellectual property, might be adopted at a potential visit to Washington by the chinese vice-president Wang Qishan by the summer, said a senior american representative.
(Ginger Gibson and David Lawder, with Alexandra Harney in Shanghai, Jean-Philippe Lefief and John Terzian for the French service)
