Top US and Chinese trade officials have held their first “candid” talks since Joe Biden became president, the two sides said yesterday, as Washington scrutinizes whether Beijing is sticking to a key agreement forged during a tariff battle between the economic superpowers.
The countries signed a so-called “phase one” pact in January last year, in which Beijing pledged to increase its purchases of US products and services by at least US$200 billion through last year and this year.
However, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) has said she is analyzing whether the terms of the pact have been met by China, with some experts saying Beijing is falling up to 40 percent short on its agreement.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce yesterday said that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴) and Tai held “candid, pragmatic” talks, and “constructive exchanges in an attitude of equality and mutual respect.”
A short statement from the Office of the US Trade Representative confirmed the “introductory virtual meeting” between Tai and He.
“During their candid exchange,” Tai laid out the “guiding principles of the Biden-Harris administration’s worker-centered trade policy ... while also raising issues of concern,” the statement added.
The Liu-Tai phone call followed a staff-level phone talk that took place on Tuesday night, a person familiar with the planning for the meeting said.
During the call, the Chinese stressed the importance of tariff rollbacks as a necessary component of next steps in the relationship, the person said.
The Biden administration so far has left in place tariffs affecting billions of US dollars in trade that were imposed under former US president Donald Trump.
Tai has pledged to build on the last year’s pact, saying on May 5 that she respects the continuity of US policy.
However, despite the tariffs that the US and China have in place, trade is actually growing, with Chinese imports from the US hitting a record in March. Chinese exports to the US have been strong due to the COVID-19 pandemic, US stimulus payments and an economic rebound.
Meanwhile, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday said that he would push for rapid passage of a bill that would allocate tens of billions of US dollars toward boosting US industrial and technological competitiveness, particularly against China.
A key provision of the proposal aims to address a shortage of semiconductors that has put the brakes on auto production this year.
With both US political parties increasingly worried about competition from China, Schumer hopes he can win bipartisan passage of the US innovation and competition act.
He said he aims to get a vote on the bill “by the end of the week.”
The legislation “will supercharge American innovation and preserve our competitive edge not just for the next few years, but for generations to come,” Schumer said in the US Senate.
The proposal aims to address a number of technological areas in which the US has fallen behind its Chinese competitors, including in the production of semiconductors. An ongoing shortage of the crucial chips has forced US automakers to cut production, and the bill allocates US$52 billion in funding for a previously approved plan to increase domestic manufacturing of the components.
Also included is US$1.5 billion to pay for a fund to boost US competitiveness in 5G wireless technology.
Another US$1.5 billion would go toward a program “to counter the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party globally,” and require the US Department of State to appoint a top official dedicated to that goal, according to a summary of the legislation.
Billions of US dollars would go toward scholarships and other programs to advance scientific research.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
RECYCLE: Taiwan would aid manufacturers in refining rare earths from discarded appliances, which would fit the nation’s circular economy goals, minister Kung said Taiwan would work with the US and Japan on a proposed cooperation initiative in response to Beijing’s newly announced rare earth export curbs, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. China last week announced new restrictions requiring companies to obtain export licenses if their products contain more than 0.1 percent of Chinese-origin rare earths by value. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Wednesday responded by saying that Beijing was “unreliable” in its rare earths exports, adding that the US would “neither be commanded, nor controlled” by China, several media outlets reported. Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato yesterday also
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
‘DRAMATIC AND POSITIVE’: AI growth would be better than it previously forecast and would stay robust even if the Chinese market became inaccessible for customers, it said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its full-year revenue growth outlook after posting record profit for last quarter, despite growing market concern about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble. The company said it expects revenue to expand about 35 percent year-on-year, driven mainly by faster-than-expected demand for leading-edge chips for AI applications. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker in July projected that revenue this year would expand about 30 percent in US dollar terms. The company also slightly hiked its capital expenditure for this year to US$40 billion to US$42 billion, compared with US$38 billion to US$42 billion it set previously. “AI demand actually
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
RSS