Instead of the U.S. - China trade war that may have seemed like it was coming, we are seeing positive U.S. - China trade relations so far. The Trump administration and China recently worked out a deal on a few small trade issues. Here are two items to illustrate how each side promised to give a little bit:
1. Following one more round of technical consultations between the United States and China, China is to allow imports of U.S. beef on conditions consistent with international food safety and animal health standards and consistent with the 1999 Agricultural Cooperation Agreement, beginning as soon as possible but no later than July 16, 2017.
2. The United States and China are to resolve outstanding issues for the import of China origin cooked poultry to the United States as soon as possible, and after reaching consensus, the United States is to publish a proposed rule by July 16, 2017, at the latest, with the United States realizing China poultry exports as soon as possible.
On its face, the deal looks somewhat balanced, although the full impact of each of the items will have to be determined over time. If this is what what the Trump administration's trade policy and trade deals will look like going forward -- a trade deal where both sides give something -- everyone can relax a bit.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross also made reference to the possibility of a larger trade deal:
We're not finished negotiating with China. ... Now that we have these out of the way, we are going to chart for a one year program. Maybe some way stations along the way to that. And then if we make continued progress in the one year, then we'll go for a longer period, and maybe even eventually some sort of more comprehensive treaty.
Perhaps a comprehensive treaty like this one?
There is the issue of rhetoric, though. Here's something else Ross said about the deal:
It was pretty much a Herculean accomplishment to get this done. This is more than has been done in the whole history of U.S.-China relations on trade.
That's obviously an exaggeration, but in fairness, is it much different than the Obama administration calling the TPP "the most progressive trade agreement in history"? It's probably best just to ignore the marketing of government policy and accomplishments.
