China: Washington and Beijing Agree to Avoid Trade War

The Chinese Vice Premier says that officials from his country and the United States have reached an understanding on economic and trade issues and have agreed to avoid entering a "trade war." At the same time, Beijing has announced it will significantly increase imports from the U.S. Liu He, the Vice Premier and special representative of the Chinese President, traveled to the United States last week for discussions on economic and trade issues between Beijing and Washington. According to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, this trip was made at the invitation of U.S. officials. On Saturday, Liu told reporters that both sides have agreed "not to enter a trade war and to prevent the imposition of new tariffs against each other; this was the most important outcome of the recent negotiations." U.S. officials have not yet commented on tariffs. The Vice Premier expressed satisfaction with his trip to Washington, stating that the main agreements had previously been reached between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, the Presidents of the U.S. and China. Concurrently, the United States and China issued a joint statement on Saturday, indicating that China has announced its commitment to significantly increase imports of goods and services from the U.S. However, news agencies Associated Press and Reuters reported that the joint statement did not mention the $200 billion trade deficit between the two countries. Earlier, Reuters cited sources close to U.S. negotiators reporting that China had proposed to reduce the negative trade balance between the two countries by $200 billion by 2020. Donald Trump, the U.S. President, has frequently targeted this figure for severe criticism. However, a group of analysts are skeptical about Beijing's final agreement to eliminate the $200 billion deficit. In the previous month, Trump ordered new tariffs worth tens of billions of dollars on Chinese goods, a move that was met with a similar response from the Chinese government. Peter Navarro, the U.S. President's trade advisor, stated that "with these tariffs... the U.S. is defending itself against China's economic aggression." This situation fueled speculation about the occurrence of a "trade war" between the two major economic powers in the world. At that time, Li Keqiang, the Prime Minister of China, stated that "no one wins in a trade war." Several American and Chinese officials had expressed hope in recent weeks about reaching an agreement between the two countries to prevent a potential "trade war." The joint statement from the U.S. and China on Saturday did not mention whether the two sides had agreed to refrain from imposing new tariffs.