The U.S. needs to increase “engagement” with China to reach a trade deal, said Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., adding that the U.S. has stronger, not weaker, trade relationships with its allies since President Donald Trump became president.
Exports to China
The Dec. 3 House passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2019 will have serious repercussions for U.S.-China trade talks if the bill becomes law, a China Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson threatened on Dec. 4. H.R. 649 and the companion S. 178 that cleared the Senate in September demand tough U.S. sanctions on China over reports of government-run detention centers imprisoning millions of Muslim-minority Chinese citizens in Xinjiang.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Dec. 4 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
China approved its Wuwei Customs Supervision Area in the Gansu Province for imported timber, according to a Dec. 4 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The facility was approved to import eight varieties of “bark-free boards,” the report said, including white birch, larch, Scots pine, Chinese pine, fir and spruce, which must be transported in sealed containers. Chinese customs may announce additional customs areas approved for imported timber, the report said.
The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
President Donald Trump has “no deadline” for striking a trade deal with China, he told reporters Dec. 3 during a meeting in London. “I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal,” he said. The Chinese “want to make a deal now, and we’ll see whether or not the deal’s going to be right,” he said. “It’s got to be right.” A trade agreement is “dependent on one thing -- do I want to make it?” Trump said. “We’re doing very well with China right now. We can do even better with the flick of a pen.” China didn’t immediately comment. Extending the U.S.-China trade war for another year past the 2020 election would be a “bad deal” for “every segment of the economy,” said David French, senior vice president-government relations at the National Retail Federation. “We want and need to see a deal as soon as possible,” said French. Four rounds of Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods at 15 percent and higher “continue to hurt U.S. businesses, workers and consumers and are a substantial drag on the U.S. economy,” he said.
China recently issued a draft consultation paper for new value-added tax legislation that aims to “elevate” the treatment of VAT rules to a legislative format and implement internationally recognized VAT guidelines, KPMG said in a Dec. 2 post. The “consultation process” for the VAT legislation is open until Dec. 26, and will eventually be considered and likely approved by China’s National People’s Congress in early 2020, the post said.
China and El Salvador signed a memorandum of understanding to create a “working group on trade” to ease trade restrictions between the two nations, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a Dec. 3 press release, according to an unofficial translation. The memorandum aims to “further enhance the quality and level of bilateral trade” and strengthen “economic investment,” China said.
Two prominent Republicans questioned the suitability of switching tariffs for quotas because of currency manipulation in Brazil and Argentina, as President Donald Trump said Dec. 2 he is doing. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., the leading critic of Trump's trade policy, issued a statement that night that said, “He is justifying these tariffs by citing Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. This provision is exclusively meant for national security threats. Yet, the President has acknowledged that the real purpose of this action is to combat currency manipulation -- which does not pose a national security threat. Furthermore, even if this action were legitimate, the statutory window for imposing these tariffs has closed. These actions further underscore that Congress should take up my legislation that would reassert congressional authority regarding imposition of national security tariffs.”
In the Nov. 25 - Dec. 2 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: