THE latest round of trade talks between the US and China ended on Sunday without any announced deals and with Chinese officials warning that all trade talks between Beijing and Washington will be void if the US sets up trade sanctions.
In a statement distributed by the state-controlled news media, China said: 'If the United States introduces trade measures, including an increase of tariffs, all the economic and trade outcomes negotiated by the two parties will not take effect.'
The apparent impasse left the Trump administration with the issue of what to do about China's industrial policies. It also left unresolved an awkward issue for both sides: the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE, which had violated sanctions against North Korea and Iran.
President Trump had sent to the talks what was essentially an export promotion team led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and including senior officials from the Treasury and from the Agriculture Department. Conspicuously absent were top officials from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which has threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on US$50 billion a year in Chinese goods, in addition to the tariffs already imposed on $3 billion a year in Chinese steel and aluminum exports, reports The New York Times.
Mr Trump had underlined his administration's plans to confront China on trade when he wrote on Twitter while the American team was in Beijing, When you're almost 800 Billion Dollars a year down on Trade, you can't lose a Trade War!
But at the end of the negotiations, Beijing officials refused to pledge any additional purchases from the United States without an American agreement to resolve broader trade issues.
If the United States imposes the tariffs, China has previously said, Beijing would retaliate by blocking an equal value of soybeans and other goods from the United States. That would amount to more than one-third of Chinese imports of American goods.
The arrival of Mr Ross and his team in Beijing had fostered optimism in China that the issue could be settled without any big moves by Beijing.
Chinese officials know these talks are precarious, but may underestimate the domestic political cost Trump now sees in lifting the ZTE ban without major concessions from China,' said Andrew Gilholm, the director of China analysis at Control Risks, a political and security consulting firm. If the ban stays, Beijing's retaliation will definitely go up a gear.
Further trade frictions between the United States and China could also create difficulties for Vice Premier Liu He, a close ally of President Xi Jinping. Mr Liu, an economist, is seen as one of the few moderates in a Chinese government increasingly dominated by advocates of greater state control of the economy.
'Trump's strategy does no favours for the moderates like trade negotiator Mr Liu who are eager to take China down a more manageable path of market and financial reforms, and such reforms would indeed be good for US commercial interests,' said James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of the law firm Perkins Coie and a former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
In a statement distributed by the state-controlled news media, China said: 'If the United States introduces trade measures, including an increase of tariffs, all the economic and trade outcomes negotiated by the two parties will not take effect.'
The apparent impasse left the Trump administration with the issue of what to do about China's industrial policies. It also left unresolved an awkward issue for both sides: the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE, which had violated sanctions against North Korea and Iran.
President Trump had sent to the talks what was essentially an export promotion team led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and including senior officials from the Treasury and from the Agriculture Department. Conspicuously absent were top officials from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which has threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on US$50 billion a year in Chinese goods, in addition to the tariffs already imposed on $3 billion a year in Chinese steel and aluminum exports, reports The New York Times.
Mr Trump had underlined his administration's plans to confront China on trade when he wrote on Twitter while the American team was in Beijing, When you're almost 800 Billion Dollars a year down on Trade, you can't lose a Trade War!
But at the end of the negotiations, Beijing officials refused to pledge any additional purchases from the United States without an American agreement to resolve broader trade issues.
If the United States imposes the tariffs, China has previously said, Beijing would retaliate by blocking an equal value of soybeans and other goods from the United States. That would amount to more than one-third of Chinese imports of American goods.
The arrival of Mr Ross and his team in Beijing had fostered optimism in China that the issue could be settled without any big moves by Beijing.
Chinese officials know these talks are precarious, but may underestimate the domestic political cost Trump now sees in lifting the ZTE ban without major concessions from China,' said Andrew Gilholm, the director of China analysis at Control Risks, a political and security consulting firm. If the ban stays, Beijing's retaliation will definitely go up a gear.
Further trade frictions between the United States and China could also create difficulties for Vice Premier Liu He, a close ally of President Xi Jinping. Mr Liu, an economist, is seen as one of the few moderates in a Chinese government increasingly dominated by advocates of greater state control of the economy.
'Trump's strategy does no favours for the moderates like trade negotiator Mr Liu who are eager to take China down a more manageable path of market and financial reforms, and such reforms would indeed be good for US commercial interests,' said James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of the law firm Perkins Coie and a former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.