China

The president said he expected to meet soon with Chinese President Xi Jinping “and make the parts of the deal that the [negotiating] group is unable to make. That's the way deals happen.”

“In a word, the past 40 years have proved that cooperation is in the interests of both countries while confrontation hurts both. There is no better option for us than cooperation.”

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual report to Congress on China’s compliance with World Trade Organization rules dismisses the reform efforts of a handful of WTO members because it says their proposals do not adequately address the threat China’s economic model poses to the multilateral trading system.

Lighthizer, Mnuchin will travel to China later this month ahead of Trump’s planned Vietnam meeting with Kim Jong Un.

The administration remains “particularly focused on reaching meaningful commitments on structural issues and deficit reduction. Both parties have agreed that any resolution will be fully enforceable.”

China has made progress on market access reforms and intellectual property enforcement issues in talks with the U.S., but has not advanced any proposals aimed at addressing forced technology transfers and industrial policies, U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials said on Thursday.

The United States this week ripped China over its July 2018 notification of subsidies to the World Trade Organization, questioning why Beijing did not include numerous fisheries programs while also outlining others that were not pertinent to the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

“China and these other countries are also extending these discriminatory and trade distorting rules to new categories of data, digital services, and forms of behind-the-border regulation.”