Talks in Washington last month were ‘futile’ and there’s no sign that Beijing is prepared to change, officials say
Washington is losing patience with China after seeing no sign of progress on structural reforms – even in talks last month – to address its trade imbalance with the United States, according to US officials.
The officials also said the White House would step up monitoring to see if China resorted to non-tariff barriers such as slowing down licence approvals for American companies as a trade war rages between the two countries.
The conflict between the world’s two biggest economies escalated on Monday when US President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on another US$200 billion of Chinese imports, and China responded by imposing tariffs of its own on US$60 billion of American goods.
That was despite an invitation from Washington last week for Beijing to return to the negotiation table, and trip by commerce vice-minister Wang Shouwen to the United States last month.
A senior US official said the talks with Wang were futile because the Chinese side focused on “technical” aspects and displayed little willingness to address structural reform.
“China still engages in the international economic systems like a developing nation without taking responsibilities in the global system,” the official said. “China needs to move.
