China, US in ‘productive’ trade talks 
2019-09-23
CHINA and the United States held vice ministerial-level trade talks in Washington on Thursday and Friday, and conducted constructive discussions on economic and trade issues of mutual concern.
The two sides carefully discussed the specific arrangement for the 13th round of China-US high-level economic and trade consultations scheduled for October in Washington.
The two sides agreed to continue to maintain communication on related issues.
The delegation was led by Liao Min, deputy director of China’s Office of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs and Vice Finance Minister.
The US Trade Representative’s office (USTR) also issued a brief statement characterizing the two days as “productive” and that a principal-level trade meeting in Washington would take place in October as previously planned.
The early October meeting will include the top trade negotiators: Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. It is expected to determine whether the world’s two largest economies are starting to chart a path out of their 14-month trade tension.
The US will temporarily exempt more than 400 types of Chinese products from tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration last year, according to three notices published on Friday by the USTR.
The exemptions include products like Christmas tree lights, plastic straws, dog leashes and printed circuit boards, for a total of 437 product types. They came from more than 1,100 exclusion requests made by US companies and other entities, according to the documents.
The exemptions will be introduced in three batches based on when tariffs came into effect in 2018.
Exclusions from a total product list of US$34 billion will apply retroactively from July 6, 2018; exclusions from a US$16-billion-list will apply retroactively from August 23, 2018; and exclusions from a US$200-billion-list will apply retroactively from September 24, 2018.
The exclusions will extend for a year from the date of their announcement for products from the US$34-billion and US$16-billion-product lists, but only extend until August 7, 2020 for products from the US$200-billion-product list, the USTR said.
The world’s two largest economies have been locked in an escalating trade friction for more than a year, during which the Trump administration repeatedly levied tariffs on China.
“The latest exemptions are a tacit acknowledgement by the US of the damage being done to domestic interests by the imposition of tariffs,” CNBC quoted Stephen Olson, research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation, as saying.
“The timing however is interesting ... It suggests that both sides have determined that further escalations are not desirable right now, so they are trying to create positive atmospherics before the October round of negotiations, in the hopes that those talks will at least forestall any further deterioration.”
Last week, China announced it would exempt the first set of 16 US goods from the first round of additional tariffs and President Trump subsequently postponed additional 5 percent tariffs on US$250 billion of Chinese imports from October 1 to 15.
Following that, China added soybeans and pork imports to its tariff exemption list.
