中美毛衣战差不多折腾够了？（ZT）

CrisisInvesting

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and China have started to outline commitments in principle on the stickiest issues in their trade dispute, marking the most significant progress yet toward ending a seven-month trade war, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

The world's two largest economies have slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods, slowing global economic growth, skewing supply chains and disrupting manufacturing.

As officials hold high level talks on Thursday and Friday in Washington, they remain far apart on demands made by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration for structural changes to China's economy.

But the broad outline of what could make up a deal is beginning to emerge from the talks, the sources said, as the two sides push for an agreement by March 1. That marks the end of a 90-day truce that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to when they met in Argentina late last year.

Negotiators are drawing up six memorandums of understanding on structural issues: forced technology transfer and cyber theft, intellectual property rights, services, currency, agriculture and non-tariff barriers to trade, according to two sources familiar with the progress of the talks.

At meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials last week in Beijing the two sides traded texts and worked on outlining obligations on paper, according to one of the sources.

The process has become a real trade negotiation, the source said, so much so that at the end of the week the participants considered staying in Beijing to keep working. Instead they agreed to take a few days off and reconvene in Washington.

The sources requested anonymity to speak candidly about the talks.

Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng on Thursday declined to comment on the MOUs.



GETTING COMMITMENTS IN WRITING

The MOUs cover the most complex issues affecting the trading relationship between the two countries and are meant, from the U.S. perspective, to end the practices that led Trump to start levying duties on Chinese imports in the first place.

One source cautioned that the talks could still end in failure. But the work on the MOUs was a significant step in getting China to sign up both to broad principles and to specific commitments on key issues, he said.

Several Chinese government sources told Reuters that the two countries have basically reached a consensus on alleviating the trade imbalances, but there were still some differences on each other's "core demands" that they were seeking to narrow.

"It can be said that we are now in the sprint phase, and both negotiating teams are working towards the goal of reaching an agreement within the deadline, but some problems are still quite complicated to resolve," said one Chinese official familiar with the situation.

The United States has accused Beijing of forcing U.S. companies doing business in China to share their technology with local partners and hand over intellectual property secrets. China denies it engages in such practices.

Trump administration officials also object to non-tariff barriers in China, including industrial subsidies, regulations, business licensing procedures, product standards reviews and other practices that they say keep U.S. goods out of China or give an unfair advantage to domestic firms.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has pushed for China to open its financial services markets to more foreign firms, including credit card giants Visa and MasterCard, which have waited years for China to make good on promises to allow them to operate there.

On currency, U.S. officials including Mnuchin have warned China against devaluing its yuan to gain a competitive advantage after the Chinese currency weakened significantly against the dollar last year, partly counteracting Trump's tariffs.

The two sides were discussing an enforcement mechanism for the deal, the source said. Reuters reported last month that the United States was pushing for regular reviews of China's progress on pledged trade reforms and could reinstate tariffs if it deems Beijing has violated the agreement.

The parties also were looking at a 10-item list of ways that China could reduce its trade surplus with the United States, including by buying agricultural produce, energy and goods such as semiconductors, according to two other sources familiar with the talks.

CrisisInvesting

毛衣战与股市何干？
毛衣战与老百姓何干？

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股市可能也是极度厌烦毛衣战。

CrisisInvesting

正在美国华盛顿访问的中国国家主席习近平的特使、中国国务院副总理刘鹤计划于2月21日至22日同特朗普政府贸易团队举行高级别贸易谈判。这是中美贸易代表第7轮贸易谈判，也是3月1日中美贸易休战90天期限结束前1周最重要的一次谈判。如果无法取得突破，中美贸易战将再次重启。不过，据媒体在谈判前透露的消息，中美已经开始围绕各棘手议题起草原则性的承诺，这对于久拖未决的贸易谈判来说，属于一重大突破。 根据英国媒体路透社2月21日引述消息人士的报道，虽然双方在美国总统特朗普（Donald Trump）所要求的结构性改革要求方面依然存在分歧，但双方谈判中已经开始触及原则性协议的可能性。也就是说，中美已经就达成协议开始填充具体内容，中方注重在原则上向美国做出承诺。 从最初的框架性协议，到2月北京贸易谈判后达成的谅解备忘录，再到此次原则性协议，可以说在美国鹰派的步步紧逼下，中美在贸易谈判层面已经取得的三种进展。这也是2018年年末中美元首习特会后，刘鹤同莱特希泽谈判取得的三种进展。虽然这种进展看似停留在措辞层面，但也体现出双方已经不避讳彼此贸易关系的硬骨头议题。和2018年习特会前的特朗普政府表态相比，美国现在姿态已经务实了一些，急于达成协议的心理也更强烈了一些。(ZT)

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