China Urges US To Meet It ‘Halfway’ For A Trade Deal

Marking a breakthrough in the US-China trade war, China urged Washington to “meet it halfway” and end the long-drawn tariff war.

Stating this, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang expressed the hope that Washington can “get along us” and restore “mutually beneficial” trade.

The statement from the Chinese side followed President Donald Trump’s statement on Tuesday that Americans must be prepared to endure a bit of economic pain if they want to achieve long-term benefits by winning the trade dispute.

“We hope the United States will meet China halfway,” said Geng. He also exuded the optimism that both sides can “work out a resolution acceptable to both sides based on mutual respect and equal treatment.”

Halfway means “no” to all the US demands

In the China news on trade deal pitch, the term “halfway” is strategically used implying it is not going to accept all the demands put forth by the United States.

Among the major demands by the U.S include reducing the trade surplus and halting China’s government-sponsored development of new players in robotics and other advanced technologies.

China’s trading partners see it as a technical issue that hampers the opening up of the China market. But the U.S. officials are more concerned that Chinese moves will erode the industrial leadership of America.

The bilateral negotiations are also stuck by what should follow after the deal is signed. Beijing wants the status quo restored and all punitive tariffs imposed by Trump must go moments after inking a deal.

But Washington insists they would stay for a while to ensure that Beijing walks the talk. After the abrupt ending of talks in Shanghai, the bilateral trade talks will be resuming in Washington in September.

China ready to cut trade surplus

According to reports, China is willing to act on the American demand for narrowing the big trade surplus. It is willing to buy more farm products like soybeans and other U.S. exports.

But China is not ready to yield to demands like dumping its industry development plans for the sake of trade harmony.

On Tuesday, Trump did not try to deny the chances of a recession as a fall out of the trade war and told reporters that “somebody had to take China on.”

According to Trump news, the President says whether the United States slips into a recession while taking on China is “irrelevant.”

“Whether it’s good or bad short term is irrelevant,” he said. “We have to solve the problem with China.”

According to market observers, Trump’s reaction is a tacit admission that recession might be knocking on the doors of the economy and that might be one reason why some tariffs scheduled to begin in September were delayed.

Trump says recession irrelevant if it wins the trade war

Meanwhile, a report in the Washington Post pointed out that President Trump is slowly coming out of the denial mode that trade war will not breed a recession.

Trump’s latest view on Tuesday that a short-term recession is bearable as a small price for winning the much-needed trade war with China contradicts what Trump and his aides had been saying so far.

It is a deviation from the refrain that “the fundamentals of our economy are very strong and there is no recession on the way.”

The report also notes that Trump is contradicting his assurances that the trade war will never injure the U.S economy as China will keep paying more.