May 04, 2018
U.S. talks trade with China amid broader strategic disengagement
The Trump administration’s senior economic team just wrapped up talks in Beijing to address rising U.S.–China tensions. These talks appear to have amounted largely to an exchange of views, with China, unsurprisingly, evincing little willingness to immediately address the bilateral trade deficit with the United States or curb its mercantilist economic approach.
The bottom line: The inconclusive results should not obscure a new direction in U.S. relations with China: disengagement.
In retrospect, the end of the Obama administration may represent the high-water mark of U.S.-China ties.
- Beijing’s bilateral trade with Washington reached roughly $578 billion in 2016, up from around $116 billion in 2000, while Chinese annual direct investment in the United States over the same period surged from $68 million to more than $45 billion.
Read the Full Article at Axios