Cross-border industry is good! China-US tariffs usher in a turnaround

Recently, China and the United States held the third round of high-level consultations in Zurich. The United States negotiated with us with an unprecedented attitude, striving for further win-win cooperation and gradually canceling the punitive tariffs set by the Trump administration!

This is the third face-to-face meeting between Chinese and US high-level officials, following the Alaska dialogue in March and the Tianjin talks in July. We have also reported on the previous two times. The situation was not optimistic. The negotiation atmosphere between the two sides was tense and unyielding. However, this time the negotiations have undergone a great change. The US side has softened its attitude and has conducted effective consultations and exchanges of views with us. Foreign media also said that this is the "most in-depth dialogue" between US and Chinese officials since Biden took office.

In order to show the sincerity of this dialogue, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the restart of the tariff exclusion procedure before the negotiations and published the "U.S. Product Index List of 549 Previously Imposed Tariffs Expanded Exclusions". She has solicited opinions from the outside world from October 12 to December 1 to discuss the exclusion of products such as industrial parts, thermostats, medical supplies, bicycles and textiles from the punitive tariff list.

Judging from the US's actions, this move has a significant goodwill connotation, and it can be seen that the US really wants to achieve results in this trade negotiation. Even the outside world has begun to speculate whether this means that the US has begun to want to end this years-long trade war.

The two sides mainly discussed the following issues in this meeting

1. China-US economic and trade relations are of vital importance. Both sides should work hard to promote trade normalization and strengthen bilateral economic and trade exchanges and cooperation.

2. The two sides exchanged views on the implementation of the China-US economic and trade agreement. China negotiated on the cancellation of additional tariffs and sanctions, and the Biden administration said it would launch a "targeted tariff exemption process" to exempt the Trump administration from the tariffs previously imposed on Chinese goods worth $370 billion per year.

3. The two sides expressed their respective core concerns, such as the Taiwan Strait issue, the Xinjiang issue and the human rights movement in the United States, and agreed to resolve each other's reasonable demands through consultation.

It is not easy for such a high-level meeting to reach such a consensus in the current Sino-US relations. The US government's attitude was originally very strong, why did it change so much? In the final analysis, it is for its own sake.

Judging from relevant reports from the American media, the United States is currently facing very severe inflationary pressure. The shortage of daily necessities has seriously affected the lives of the American people. Some supermarkets even put product pictures outside the shelves, pretending that the shelves are full, but in fact all products are out of stock. Onlookers who are not aware of the situation might think they are in North Korea.

In addition, some American business groups were disappointed that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai did not explicitly mention the cancellation of tariffs on China. Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Technology Association, issued a statement that day saying that the Biden administration should end these tariffs that hurt American businesses and consumers.

Since the outbreak of the trade dispute, the American people have borne an additional tariff cost of more than $90 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 30 of the most influential business groups in the United States signed a joint letter calling on the Biden administration to restart trade negotiations with China and cut tariffs on Chinese imports, saying that these tariffs are increasing the burden on the American people and businesses and dragging down US economic growth. On the one hand, the domestic situation is severe and the American people cannot wait. On the other hand, China has a tough attitude and refuses to give in. Under internal and external troubles, it is only a matter of time before the United States relaxes its negotiating attitude.

At present, the Zurich meeting is only the first turning point of the entire negotiation, and there will certainly be a lot of negotiations before the tariffs are officially lifted.