Washington (AFP)
Trump administration wants "substantial progress" in upcoming trade talks with China, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday after the announcement in Beijing and Washington of a pause in the tariff war .
"We do not want a trip that is just a series of discussions, we want to make substantial progress," Mnuchin told CNBC.
He further pointed out that Donald Trump was willing to withdraw or increase tariffs on goods from the Asian giant depending on the outcome of the talks.
"I am cautiously optimistic," he also commented as Beijing announced earlier to study the possibility of buying more US agricultural products, dear to Donald Trump and who are currently hard hit by the Chinese retaliation.
"Chinese companies have begun to learn about the purchase of US agricultural products," said Thursday the spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Gao Feng.
Gao said the products in question included pork and soybeans, which US farmers were massively exporting to China before tensions began.
"China should buy large quantities of our agricultural products!" Said Donald Trump on Twitter.
"Let's see if the Chinese respect their commitments, as you know, the problem we have always had with the Chinese is that they do not respect their commitments," said CNN Peter Navarro, the economic advisor to the White House, who has always advocated steadfastness in discussions with Beijing.
The president "can reach an agreement at any time but he wants a good agreement", hammered Steven Mnuchin, recalling that Beijing had committed from the beginning of the discussions "to rebalance" trade between the two countries.
In 2018, the United States has a goods deficit of $ 419.52 billion with China.
In May, "we had (a text of) agreement of 150 pages about to be finalized.The Chinese have turned around," said Peter Navarro.
And in late July, "we obviously did not make the progress we wanted" at the last meeting in Shanghai, the Chinese economic capital, said Steven Mnuchin.
He declined to say what were the points that would be specifically discussed during the bilateral early October.
- "Symbolically" -
On the other hand, he stressed that Hong Kong's sensitive issue would not be "on the table" of the negotiations. "It's up to the State Department, not trade," he said.
Mr. Mnuchin recalled that in the spring, when the two countries were about to sign an agreement, the text included seven chapters. And the first was intellectual property and the forced transfer of technology.
These comments come as Beijing and Washington announced Wednesday a pause in the escalation of their trade war.
China, whose economy is increasingly affected by a trade war that has lasted 18 months, has agreed to exempt certain products from the United States at the request of companies from customs duties.
The host of the White House, he announced in the evening that he postponed to October 15 instead of the first tariff increase of $ 250 billion worth of goods imported from China "as a sign of goodwill."
He said the decision was made at the request of Chinese Vice Premier Liu He "because of the celebration, on October 1, of the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China".
That new tariffs are imposed on October 1 "posed a serious problem symbolically," said Steven Mnuchin Thursday.
In this trade war, it is the technological domination that is at stake.
Washington is demanding that the Chinese authorities put an end to "unfair" business practices, including the forced transfer of US technology, massive subsidies to Chinese state-owned enterprises, and the theft of intellectual property.
So far, without an agreement, Donald Trump has embarked on a merciless trade war that has resulted in tariff increases on billions of dollars worth of goods.
He warned he was ready to overtax all imports from China by the end of the year.
© 2019 AFP