“As far as we know, President Xi at the moment does not wish to make a deal,” White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference in New York on Wednesday. “I do not think President Xi, at the moment, has any intention of following through on the discussions we made.”
The trade negotiations between the US and China aimed at defusing tensions have stalled, said Kudlow. Throughout it all, Trump has maintained a good relationship with Xi and they are working together to thwart North Korea’s nuclear threat, said Kudlow.
But big differences remain over trade, he said. “Xi is holding the game up,” he said. Xi’s top economic adviser, Liu He, appears willing to move forward on a deal, said Kudlow. Liu was involved in three rounds of negotiations over trade with US officials in May and June.
China hasn’t “responded at all, not one basis point, to our request to do something about the theft of intellectual property and the forced divestiture of our technology,” said Kudlow.
Trump earlier this month imposed 25% tariffs on US$34 billion of Chinese goods, with another US$16 billion to follow soon. The administration has also released a list of 10% tariffs on an additional US$200 billion of Chinese goods, which could take effect as early as next month. China retaliated on the first wave of tariffs by slapping duties on the same dollar amount of US imports, and Beijing has said it’ll fight against any further US actions.
Trump authorized the tariffs after an investigation he ordered by the US Trade Representative’s office found that China was violating intellectual property rules and forcing American companies operating in China to hand over their technology secrets to gain access to the market. Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng last week called those accusations “groundless” and said that the US trade penalties contravene rules at the World Trade Organization.
‘Totally Preposterous’
Kudlow’s latest comments were “totally preposterous,” said Li Yong, a senior fellow at the government-affiliated China Association of International Trade in Beijing.
“The US started the trade tensions and they imposed tariffs first, then they put all the blame on China,” he said. “The purpose of this is to sensationalize the matter and stir up public attention. This is meaningless.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has no bilateral meetings scheduled with Chinese officials during the Group of 20 meetings in Argentina later this week. Mnuchin has about a dozen one-on-one discussions and pull-asides scheduled with counterparts at the G-20, though he sees no need to meet with Chinese officials, according to a senior Treasury official on Tuesday.
Mnuchin said last week that China must commit to deepening structural reforms to its economy before the US would agree to negotiate over trade.