he first China-U.S. Comprehensive Economic Dialogue held yesterday seems to have gone as well as can be reasonably expected, given the existing trade issues between the two countries. "As the world's two largest economies and the major drivers of global growth, the United States and China have strong overlapping interests," said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in his opening remarks at the CED. "China and the United States are each other's largest trading partner and major source of investment. Cooperation is the only right choice for the two sides," Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said in his opening remarks at the CED on Wednesday. This meeting was headed by Treasury Sec. Mnuchin and Commerce Sec. Ross representing the U.S. and Chinese Vice-Premier Wang heading the Chinese delegation. "China-U.S. cooperation will benefit not only the companies and people of the two countries, but also the whole world," added Vice Premier Wang.
As Forbes writes in an article "Despite The Crying, The First U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue Was Better Than Expected", the CED was first decided upon by President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi when they met at Mar-a-Lago in early April. Both leaders know that economic cooperation is vital to the interests of both countries and getting into a trade war will hurt the two economies pretty badly, with the U.S. more than likely getting the short end of the stick, given the huge population of China, which is a market unto itself.
Wang Yang
At the summit yesterday, both sides have agreed to pursue economic cooperation to benefit both countries and will use dialog and negotiations to sort out any differences that might come up going forward (differences are a guarantee)
"Since the presidential summit, the first 100 days made progress on important issues including credit ratings, bond clearing, electronic payments, commercial banking and liquefied natural gas. Also, this is the first time since 2003 that the Chinese have allowed for imports of American beef," said a statement by Mnuchin and Ross after the meeting.
"The principles of balance, fairness and reciprocity on matters of trade will continue to guide the American position so we can give American workers and businesses an opportunity to compete on a level playing field," the U.S. statement added. The U.S. statement also stated that China acknowledged the shared objective on the trade deficit that currently exists between the two countries and that both sides will work cooperatively on to achieve more balance in the relationship (critical acknowledgement by China).
As is always the case, the financial media, the kindly uncles, the always-short-never-wrong and the do-over Dudleys are trying to paint this summit as a negative however, as you can see above, that is far from the truth.
