Fair and reciprocal trade with China will boost economic growth: White House

Washington: Fair and reciprocal trade with China will boost the long-term economic growth not only of the United States, but also globally, the White House said announcing President Donald Trump will welcome an official delegation from China for a series of meetings later this week to discuss the trade relationship between the two countries. The meetings inside the White House complex would take place on January 30 and 31.

“Under President Trump's leadership, the United States economy is growing at record levels, putting the president in a strong position to fix long standing trade concerns with China. On Thursday, the president will meet with the (Chinese) vice premier who is here this week for continued talks,” the White House Press Secretary Sarah sanders told reporters on Monday.

Trump is committed to achieving greater market access for US exports and better treatment for US farmers, ranchers, and businesses.

“Fair and reciprocal trade with China will boost long-term economic growth not only of the United States, but globally,” Sanders said.

The Chinese delegation will be led by Vice Premier Liu He. The American delegation will be led by United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer. The US delegation will include Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Larry Kudlow, and Assistant to the President for Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro.

According to the White House, the meetings are a part of the agreement reached between Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires on December 1, 2018, to engage in 90 days of negotiations with a view to achieve needed structural changes in China that affect trade between the two countries.

"The two sides will discuss China's pledge to purchase a substantial amount of goods and services from the United States. Under this agreement, an official United States delegation travelled to Beijing for trade meetings from January 7 to 9, 2019,” the White House said.

According to the Treasury Secretary, significant progress has been made in the talks between the two countries on issues of trade. “There's been significant movement and we're working through what are still very completed issues," he told reporters at the White House.

“Now let me just remind people, we do have another 30 days after this, so my expectation is that we'll make significant progress at these meetings, but I would just emphasize these are complicated issues. We have a timeline of how we've mapped out the 90 days,” he said in response to a question.

Mnuchin said that enforcement will definitely be one of the top topics with the Chinese. “This is pretty obvious, but we want to make sure that we expect when we get a deal with that that deal will be enforced,” he said.

“I would say in the conversations we had previously with them, there's been an acknowledgment with China that they understand that. Now, the details of how we do that are very complicated. That needs to be negotiated, but IP protection no more forced joint ventures and enforcement are three of the most important issues on the agenda,” Mnuchin said.

In an op-ed, Andy Puzder, former CEO of CKE Restaurants, said that Chinee economy is rapidly declining because of the policies of Trump. "President Trump is exposing China's economic vulnerability, showing that the communist nation cannot maintain its rapid growth without it patently unfair mercantilist trade policies,” he said in an op-ed for Fox News.