Katherine Tai says any major adjustments in trade with China will depend on talks with her counterpart in Beijing, which have yet to be scheduled.
The top US trade official announced on Monday that the White House would begin a process to exempt some Chinese goods from Trump-era tariffs, but declined to give details on a schedule or which specific industries the change would affect. In remarks at a Washington think tank, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai added that any major changes in the US administration’s China trade policy would depend on the results of future talks, still to be scheduled, with her counterpart in Beijing. “There are things that appear that they have not done,” said Tai, referring to China’s commitments under the phase one trade agreement signed early last year, which included a promise to buy some US$200 billion worth of goods and services over the following two-year period. “I have not had the conversation with them around whether they have tried to do it, or what the intervening concerns are,” she said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. “We will have to address where this relationship goes from this starting point.” 02:18 US trade chief calls for ‘pragmatic approach’ in reveal of China strategy Tai’s comments come nine months into a review of Washington’s China policy that was ordered by President Many observers listening to Tai on Monday said they were concerned that there still seemed to be a lack of detail on what Biden, Tai and the rest of the administration planned to do about the contentious issue of trade with China – particularly tariffs. “If this was the speech that was delivered in February, right after the Biden administration came into office, I‘d be satisfied with that as a starting point,” said Matthews Asia investment strategist Andy Rothman, who is also a former head of the macroeconomics and domestic policy office at the US embassy in Beijing. For some, the frustration comes from a view that the tariffs put in place by former president Donald Trump did not change Beijing’s behaviour and hurt the US economy.
