Lead US negotiator Robert Lighthizer said the US has made headway in pushing for structural change from China, but more work needs to be done before a deal.
The United States is making headway in pushing for structural changes within China’s economy as the two countries’ trade delegations engage in negotiations, U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Feb. 27.
“We have engaged in a very intense, extremely serious and very specific negotiation with China on crucial structural issues for several months now. We are making real progress,” Lighthizer told the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee at a hearing on U. S.- China trade issues.
He also said that the U. S. delegation was focused on ensuring the enforceability of any trade deal reached between the two countries.
“If we can complete this effort, and again I say if, and can reach a satisfactory solution to the issue of enforceability… we might have an agreement that turns the corner in our economic relationship with China.”
The trade representative, however, said that “much still needs to be done” before an agreement can be reached.
Lighthizer is the lead U. S. negotiator in trade talks with Beijing as the world’s two largest economies work to resolve their differences in a trade dispute that has seen both sides impose tariffs on imports.
On Feb. 24, President Donald Trump announced that he would delay a planned tariff increase scheduled for March 2, citing “substantial progress” being made during talks that occurred last weekend. The Trump administration had planned to increase tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports if a deal could not be reached by March 1.
