China has put forth an opening offer to the U.S. in an attempt to break through stalled trade talks between the two nations.
The bid doesn’t meet many of the trade reforms that the White House is seeking. And the proposal has been met with skepticism; in the past, China has made promises on trade reform that they never kept.
Trump “is onto something here,” said Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a think tank. “I mean, there is a serious belief that China, about to become the world’s largest economy, does not provide market access to Western firms that would be in any way reciprocal, is engaged in wholesale stealing of intellectual property of American companies.”
“And there are a lot of major American multinationals that think that they don’t have long-term plans that are sustainable in China,” Bremmer said.
President Trump imposed 10% tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to press the country to meet trade demands.
The tariff rate is set to increase to 25% as of January.
Trump has threatened to place tariffs on all remaining Chinese goods (worth nearly $300 billion) if China doesn’t meet American demands.
China presented the White House with a list of 142 items that ranged from areas of negotiation to ones that are off limits.
“Trump actually leaning into China and pressing them hard with… [what has] been delivered to them, and say, ‘Respond to it,’ I think he’s going to have a lot of support in the United States for that,” said Bremmer.
Bremmer argued that most important isn’t whether trade talks progress in the next few weeks, but rather if a substantive strategy can be created.
“Is this actually going to play out multilaterally, America with its allies, America with a stronger, cohesive administration with a game plan on China? That’s, for me, the real question,” said Bremmer. “Not whether or not we can get to a better place in a couple of weeks.”
The United States and China plan to meet each other in Argentina during the G20 summit at the end of November.
Kristin Myers is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
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