US wants China to cut trade deficit by $200 billion

BEIJING: Striking an assertive position, the Trump administration has asked China to reduce its trade deficit with the US by $200 billion by the end of 2020. A US official confirmed the authenticity of a document making that and other requests that were presented to China ahead of two days of trade talks that ended Friday.

Earlier, President Donald Trump had said he wanted Beijing to cut the chronic US trade deficit, which Washington says stood at a record $375.2 billion last year, by $100 billion.

The four-page list from the US side also included demands that China immediately stop providing subsidies to industries listed in a key industrial plan. The list also includes a demand that China end some of its policies related to technology transfers, a key source of tension underlying the dispute.

The document is described in an introductory disclaimer as being provided to the Chinese ahead of the visit by US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and other US officials this week for the talks aimed at defusing tensions that have brought the two countries close to a trade war.

The commerce ministry said Chinese and American officials meeting in Beijing agreed to set up a mechanism to try to work through their dispute, though differences remain, Chinese state media reported.

The two sides “reached consensus in some areas”, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It did not provide specifics, an indication that no specific breakthroughs were reached.

China also asked that Washington treat Chinese investment equally in its national security reviews and stop issuing any new restrictions on investments. China also demanded that US terminate its Section 301 intellectual property probe and not implement the 25% tariffs proposed as part of that probe.

The group led by Mnuchin included commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, trade representative Robert Lighthizer and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.