China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said US-China economic relations matter not just to the two countries, but also the rest of the world and expressed appreciation for Raimondo’s remarks that she likes trade with China.
He said he was ready to work together to “foster a more favourable policy environment for stronger cooperation between our businesses to bolster bilateral trade and investment in a stable and predictable manner”.
Raimondo said the United States and China have “worked over the summer to establish new information exchanges and working groups that will enable us to have more consistent engagement in our relationship”.
TRADE TENSIONS
Relations between the United States and China have plummeted to some of their lowest levels in decades, with US trade curbs near the top of the laundry list of disagreements.
Washington says they are crucial to safeguarding national security, but China sees them as seeking to curb its economic rise.
This month, Biden issued an executive order aimed at restricting certain US investments in sensitive high-tech areas in China – a move Beijing blasted as being “anti-globalisation”.
The long-anticipated rules, expected to be implemented next year, target sectors such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sought to reassure Chinese officials about the expected curbs during a visit to Beijing last month, promising that any new moves would be implemented in a transparent way.
Raimondo has declared off-limits any discussion of US export curbs aimed at slowing Beijing’s military advances.
“Of course of matters of national security, there is no room to compromise or negotiate,” she said, adding the vast majority did not impact national security concerns.
“We believe a strong Chinese economy is a good thing,” she said.
At an event later on Monday, Raimondo showed off a number of personal care products made by US companies and sold in China to make the case that trade can flourish outside products with national security implications, and said 99 per cent of trade between the two countries is unrelated to export controls.
“No one can argue that health and beauty aids interfere in our national security,” she said. “The plan, and the hope, is that our commercial relationship, if done right, can stabilise the political relationship.”
Source: CNA
