President Donald Trump told reporters that the negotiating meeting planned for September with the Chinese "is still on." He told reporters on Sept. 2 that "that hasn’t changed. They haven’t changed and we haven’t. We’ll see what happens."
Exports to China
A Chinese tech company and a manufacturing company said the U.S.-China trade war is not damaging their business and instead said it is encouraging them to find other customers, including in Europe. Zhang Tianren, chairman of the board of directors for Tianneng Power International, and Lan Fenghui, president of Unitek Taxation Company, said during an Aug. 30 Ministry of Commerce press conference that they are not feeling the negative effects of U.S. tariffs. “Although there is a bit of hardship, it does not have much impact,” Zhang said, according to an unofficial translation of the transcript. Company names are via the unofficial translation as well.
China is expanding a pilot program for parallel auto imports to increase the country’s foreign car market, according to an Aug. 30 notice from China’s Ministry of Commerce and a report from Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency. The program for parallel auto imports -- whereby Chinese “independent auto dealers directly purchase vehicles from a foreign production base or auto dealer” -- will expand to give preferential treatment to certain ports that import more than “1,000 vehicles” annually, China said.
China is studying its technology companies’ dependence on U.S. suppliers as it prepares for possible further escalations of the trade war, according to an Aug. 29 report in The Wall Street Journal. The moves also come as China reportedly plans to formally introduce its so-called unreliable entity list (see 1908220046). China has examined its companies’ reliance on foreign suppliers during the last few months, The Wall Street Journal report said, as part of its long-term goal “of weaning itself off dependence on U.S. technology.” By conducting the survey, Chinese officials are trying to ensure its important companies aren’t significantly damaged by any retaliatory measures against the U.S., the report said. China has reached out to several of the country’s “best-known smartphone makers,” the report said: Xiaomi Corp., Oppo and Vivo.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is soliciting comments at regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2019-0012, on tariff and non-tariff barriers in 61 countries, the European Union and the countries of the Arab League (some of which are included in the list that follows). The topics stakeholders can comment on are wide-ranging -- from tariffs, customs practices, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures not based on science, to subsidies, intellectual property enforcement, data localization, discriminatory licensing or regulatory actions and investment restrictions. They also asked about Buy America-equivalent policies in other markets. The countries under review for the annual trade barriers report are: Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Vietnam. Comments are due by midnight Oct. 31.
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke's presidential campaign released a detailed trade agenda that talked about how he would undo some of what he called President Donald Trump's "disastrous trade war," and how he would advance trade liberalization, if he were elected.
China wants to import more fruit and other agricultural products from the Philippines, Chinese president Xi Jinping said during a meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, China’s State Council said in an Aug. 29 press release, according to an unofficial translation. Xi told Duterte that China wants to “implement major cooperation projects” with the Philippines and “is willing to import more high-quality fruits and agricultural products,” the press release said.
In the Aug. 29 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Almost half of companies that responded to the U.S.-China Business Council's annual survey on the business climate in China said they have lost sales in China since the trade war began. The most common reason is because of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports to China, according to these 100 multinational firms based in the U.S. Another third said they lost sales because of U.S. tariffs.
China is not looking to escalate its trade war with the U.S. and wants to focus on removing tariffs, not adding them, a Chinese government spokesman said Aug. 28. “We are resolutely opposed to the escalation of the trade war and are willing to resolve the issue through consultation and cooperation in a calm attitude,” said Gao Feng, a commerce ministry spokesman, according to an unofficial translation of a press conference transcript. “The escalation of the trade war is not conducive to China, not to the United States, and is not conducive to the interests of the people of the world.”