It’s barely 3 days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his U.S. counterpart President Donald in Washington on what was deemed the greatest business meeting of all time. The two leaders were meeting for the first time and discussed many things including foreign policy, trade and security.
Top of these were trade negotiations among which is the issue of trade imbalance and access to markets. Understandably, both leaders had something to prove to their own citizens and the overall business world that was watching, hence the speedy negotiation and the desire to produce.
According to the Financial Times, China offered to open up its domestic market and give more access to American businesses to avert a full blown trade war. The move will see the opening up of the financial sector and beef exports to US businesses, something which has been an issue of contention between the two economies.
President Trumps hosts the Chinese President and business delegation at Mar-a-Lago on April 7, 2017.
The report also said that both parties agreed to produce results within 100 days in the rushed trade negotiations. With US being China’s biggest trading partner, concessions on the Chinese market in terms of beef and finance came easy because of the enduring annual trade imbalance of $347bn, a contentious issues which President Trump has been a critic of for decades.
Trump’s statements about China’s unfair trade policies with the US are on record and of public knowledge. For over three decades, Trump has accused China of the “greatest theft in the history of the world” in their trade and financial policies towards the US and the rest of the world. He has gone as far as accusing China of “raping” the United States during his Presidential campaign.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross noted on Friday that the two leaders have agreed to a new 100 Day Plan for trade talks that will reduce the huge trade deficit and increase export with China.
“Given the range of issues and the magnitude, that may be ambitious, but it’s a very big sea change in the pace of discussion,” Mr Ross told reporters after the meeting, according to Reuters.
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