U.S. Administration Yearns to lessen Trade Surplus with China

The Trump administration is pushing China to reduce its trade surplus by $100 billion with the United States, according to the White House spokeswoman on Wednesday, clearing out the previous tweet last week from the president of Donald Trump.

To solve the trade imbalance, China was asked by Trump via Twitter on Wednesday to have a plan in easing the trade imbalance with the United States by $1 billion but the spokeswoman said that Trump meant to say $100 billion instead.

There is a record of $375 billion trade deficit from the United States with China last year that presents a third of a global $566 billion U.S. trade gap in 2017, based on the Census Bureau data in the U.S.

China reported a U.S. trade surplus of $276 billion in 2017, which also represents two-thirds of its reported global surplus of $422.5 billion.

The White House spokeswoman refused to mention further details on how the administration will achieve the surplus reduction, if theU.S. products such as soybeans or aircraft are enough or other options such as the necessity of further changes in the industrial policies, reducing subsidies state-owned enterprises or lesser steel and aluminum capacity.

This request came up following the plans of Trump administration in the imposition of tariffs worth up to $60 billion of  Chinese information technology, telecommunication, and consumer products as a factor of a U.S. investigation into China’s intellectual property practices.

Although, it is still not clear if the requested value of $100 billion would solve the complaints from the U.S. regarding investment policies in China that pushes U.S. firms to transfer technology to Chinese joint venture partners that allow market access.

The concern was the major part of the inquisition conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that rarely comes up since the World Trade Organization founded it in 1995. Moreover, trade experts imply that tariffs imposed that could bring it outside the WTO rules as Chinese probe of intellectual property.

The popular Chinese state news of the Global Times said the United States shown on the Thursday editorial deemed as a victim.

It says that it requires more industrious American workers and conduct reforms because of international market demand if the U.S. aims to reduce the trade deficit instead of trying to shift globally. Nonetheless, it says, “Once a trade war starts, capable countries won’t bow to the U.S. China has tried hard to avoid a trade war, but if one breaks out, appeasement is not an option.”