China

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week discussed how the U.S. should address controversial Chinese trade practices, and whether multilateral economic institutions were effectively working to ensure all countries were abiding by the same rules.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will examine how to “equalize” the tariffs the U.S. and China apply to each other’s automobile exports, he said on Wednesday.

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow on Tuesday said he was hoping for a “breakthrough” in U.S.-China relations when President Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, meet on Saturday, reiterating Trump’s warning that further tariffs -- which some say are legally dubious at best -- will be imposed if China does not come armed with satisfactory offers.

China is continuing to flout international rules by stealing intellectual property, erecting unfair trade barriers and acquiring sensitive technology via forced transfers, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in an update to its Section 301 report.

“There are four or five big things left off. I think we'll probably get them too,” he said, adding: “I think a deal will be made and we'll find out very soon.”

U.S. concerns with China will not be solved at the G20 summit in Argentina – or even in the next decade, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) said this week, contending that what he called “promise fatigue” with Beijing would extend far beyond the Trump administration.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission is recommending that Congress review with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative the possibility of initiating cases at the World Trade Organization challenging Chinese trade abuses using the rarely cited non-violation clause of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

While the U.S. and China have resumed talks on a potential trade arrangement that could be struck at the G20 summit in Argentina later this month, according to White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, Vice President Mike Pence said this week that any deal would have to include a complete “change of posture.”