BEIJING—After weeks of escalating trade tensions with the U.S., China modulated its rhetoric, suggesting negotiations remain a priority and laying out conditions for doing so.
A government policy paper on trade issues with the U.S. released Sunday accused Washington of scuttling the negotiations, which broke down in all but name last month. It said the Trump administration’s “America First” program and use of tariffs are harming the global economy and that China wouldn’t shy away from a trade war if need be.
Throughout the document and at a briefing, the government suggested a willingness to return to negotiations. “What truly matters is how to enhance mutual trust, promote cooperation and manage differences,” the paper said. Vice Commerce Secretary Wang Shouwen told reporters, “We’re willing to adopt a cooperative approach to find a solution.”
“ We’re willing to adopt a cooperative approach to find a solution ”
The tone, if not the substance, was markedly more measured than the sharp, at times nationalistic rhetoric adopted by state media and some officials in the past three weeks, and Chinese trade experts said the point is to signal talks can resume, though the onus is on the U.S.
China “is expressing its wish to work together,” said Zhang Yansheng, a researcher at the state-backed think tank China Center for International Economic Exchanges.
Negotiations derailed after the U.S. accused Chinese negotiators of backsliding, particularly for to commit to explicit changes in laws. Since then and especially since the U.S. restricted Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co.’s access to American technology, state media and Chinese officials started using the term “trade war”-- a term Beijing had ordered off-limits.
Chinese officials suggested China may bar exports of rare earths, used in high-tech products, to the U.S. announced the creation of a blacklist for foreign companies and launched an investigation into FedEx Corp. for misdirecting packages. Meanwhile both sides have increased the tit-for-tat punitive tariffs on each other’s goods.
The policy paper reiterated three preconditions for a trade deal: that the U.S. must remove “all additional tariffs” levied on Chinese exports, that Chinese purchases of American goods to help reduce the U.S. trade deficit “should be realistic,” and that the text of a final agreement should be “balanced.”
All three issues became sore points in the talks, according to officials, with the U.S. wanting to require China change some laws and wanting to sustain some tariffs to ensure Beijing’s compliance. The Chinese side saw these demands as one-sided—something Mr. Wang referred to in his remarks Sunday.
“Both sides need to make concessions. The concessions can’t all be from one side,” said Mr. Wang, one of China’s negotiators with the U.S.
Still, the language used in the policy paper is general, potentially providing wiggle room. “The three issues are but bargaining points in a negotiation,” Mr. Zhang . He added: “The question is does the U.S. want to take these?”
Though no talks are currently scheduled, senior U.S. and Chinese finance and trade officials are expected to attend meetings of the Group of 20 major economies in Japan. A possible meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit later this month is seen by many experts on both sides as a chance to put talks back on track. Asked about that, Mr. Wang said he had no information.
The new policy paper is an attempt to make China’s position clear ahead of the G-20, including that the U.S. is at fault for starting the conflict, said Mei Xinyu, an analyst with a Commerce Ministry think tank. “China is not afraid but it is still open to negotiations and its door is open,” he said, but “the U.S. needs to bring out fair requests.”
A chunk of the policy paper rejects the U.S. accusations that Beijing reneged on previously agreed to compromises. Instead, the policy paper enumerates how the U.S. “backtracked on its commitments” three times during a year of negotiations abandoning agreements to stop imposing tariffs.
Mr. Wang reiterated an argument Chinese officials have made that Beijing didn’t backslide in the talks because no agreement had been completed. “At the negotiating table, everything is up for discussion. Without an agreement, there can be no so-called ‘backtracking,” Mr. Wang said. He then switched to English: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
—Chao Deng contributed to this article.
Write to Yoko Kubota at yoko.kubota@wsj.com
2019-06-02 09:31:00Z
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