FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

U.S. Delegation Goes Back to China for More Trade Talks

Feb. 6, 2019 (EIRNS)—An American trade negotiation delegation headed by Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will head to Beijing again Feb. 11 for further discussions with senior Chinese officials. Mnuchin told CNBC in an interview this morning, “We are committed to continue these talks. We’re putting in an enormous amount of effort to hit this deadline and get a deal. That’s our objective.” He also said, according to CNBC, “We are trying to reach a comprehensive agreement on a long range of issues. The good news is we have been talking about these issues over the past year.”

Coincidentally the Commerce Department reported the U.S. trade deficit fell sharply from October to November, down to $49.3 billion. Imports fell by almost 3%, exports fell slightly. The major cause may have been a substantial drop in the prices of oil; and in any case, merely lowering the trade deficit is not the main solution to the resulting U.S. employment and productivity problem. Rather, the nation with by far the bulk of the surplus with the United States, China, is not only being encouraged to make major U.S. productive investments and joint third-country investments; it is being more and more effectively barred from doing so.