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US-CHINA-TRADE-DISPUTE-AUTO-TARIFF
US slams harmful China trade policies, threatens auto tariffs
WASHINGTON, Nov 29, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – US Trade Representative Robert
Lighthizer on Wednesday slammed Beijing for failing to offer “meaningful
reform” on aggressive trade policies that harm US workers and industry, and
threatened tariffs on Chinese autos.
The latest trade threat against China comes days before President Donald
Trump is due to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a G20 summit in
Argentina to defuse the ongoing trade conflict between the world’s top two
economic powers.
Instead, Lighthizer’s statement escalated the dispute further, saying:
“China’s aggressive, state-directed industrial policies are causing severe
harm to US workers and manufacturers.”
And while talks continue, “As of yet, China has not come to the table with
proposals for meaningful reform,” he said.
The country’s policies on auto tariffs are “especially egregious,” taxing
US cars at more than double the rate it charges other countries.
“At the president’s direction, I will examine all available tools to
equalize the tariffs applied to automobiles,” he said.
Trump already has imposed steep punitive tariffs on about half of the
Chinese goods imported into the US market each year, and has threatened to
target the remaining $267 billion as well — which would hit Apple iPhones
and laptops produced in China.
Earlier this month, Xi and Trump discussed the US-China trade conflict
during a phone conversation that Trump called “very good.”
Xi said he was “very happy” to talk to Trump again.
– Tough conditions –
But tensions came to the fore again at a summit when Xi and US Vice
President Mike Pence delivered competing speeches criticizing each other’s
trade and investment practices.
Xi lashed out at “America First” trade protectionism, while Pence warned
smaller countries not to be seduced by China’s massive Belt and Road
infrastructure program.
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Trump heads to Buenos Aires on Thursday for a Group of 20 summit that is
confronted with increasingly dire warnings, by the International Monetary
Fund among others, of the potential harm faced by the world economy from the
president’s trade wars.
Trump is due to meet Xi for a working dinner at the summit that runs
Friday and Saturday.
Economic advisor Larry Kudlow told a White House press conference that
“the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and
he is open to it.”
Despite Kudlow’s repeated insistence that Trump sees cause for optimism,
he also underlined the tough conditions that the administration wants to
impose on Beijing.
“China should change its practices and come into the community of
responsible trading nations,” Kudlow said, stressing that he considers the US
economy in far better shape than China’s to weather a prolonged trade war.
“We are in a position to deal with it and handle it very well,” he said.
China will have to give way on “fairness and reciprocity,” he said,
warning that US concerns over intellectual property theft and China’s forced
technology transfers “must be solved.”
BSS/AFP/HR/0928