WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - U.S. and Chinese officials will try to ease trade tensions and
bridge differences on Wednesday in annual economic talks that trade experts say
will likely yield some small-scale agreements to grant U.S. firms more access
to some of China's markets.
But the
talks are not expected to solve larger problems, such as U.S. complaints about
China's excess capacity in steel and aluminum and subsidies for state-owned
enterprises, nor China's complaints about U.S. refusals to sell Beijing advanced
technology products.
"What I
think we will see is an attempt by both sides to be able to declare victory by
coming up with a few very specific areas in which China agrees to open up its
markets more and which the U.S. can claim as victories," said Eswar
Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell University and a former China
division chief at the International Monetary Fund.
U.S.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on
Tuesday they would be looking for China to agree to concrete steps with
specific delivery dates to open markets, including more access for U.S. firms
in the financial services sector.
The talks,
rebranded by the Trump administration as the "U.S.-China Comprehensive
Economic Dialogue," come at the end of a 100-day effort by the two
countries to craft an economic plan aimed at reducing the U.S. goods trade
deficit with China, a gap that reached $347 billion last year and was up 5.3
percent through May this year.
China agreed
in May to resume purchases of U.S. beef for the first time in 14 years and made
commitments to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas and allow U.S. card payment
services companies to operate in China. But while U.S. beef is now available in
Chinese shops, it has taken longer for the other promised steps to be
implemented.
Chinese
Vice-Premier Wang Yang said on Tuesday that China has some concerns of its own
to air at the talks, including "outdated" U.S. export controls for
high-technology products.
In remarks
to a business lunch, he said such Chinese purchases would reduce the U.S. trade
deficit, noting that China imported $227 billion worth of integrated circuits
last year, but only 4 percent of that came from the United States.
Prasad said
the United States would be better served by focusing less on near-term steps
but pushing China for bigger reforms such as opening major portions of its
services sector to U.S. competition, relaxing corporate ownership rules,
reducing subsidies for state-owned enterprises and clamping down on intellectual
property theft.
Some U.S.
officials said China was likely to push to turn the 100-day plan into a
year-long effort, partly because China is viewed as unlikely to launch bolder
economic reforms before its 19th Party Congress, a once-in-five-years event to
set leadership, takes place this fall.
The annual
summer dialogues, first launched in 2006, have focused in the past on China's
currency practices and what was once viewed as an undervalued yuan. But that
issue has faded after the U.S. Treasury declined to follow through on Trump's
campaign threats to name Beijing a currency manipulator.
David
Dollar, a former Treasury attache to Beijing who is now a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution, said that as in the past, the meeting is likely to focus
more on process than substance, with the same complaints airing year after
year.
"The
cumulative effect of all these dialogues has to have been pretty minor,"
he said. "We haven't seen any significant opening up of the Chinese
economy for years."
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