After Weeks of Trade Tariff Threats, Xi Jinping Makes Conciliatory Gesture, Trump Acknowledges
Chinese President Xi Jinping's announcement of opening the nation's banking and auto manufacturing sectors has attracted words of praise from President Trump.
After weeks of sparring and slapping reciprocal trade tariffs on each other, China's Xi Jinping made a conciliatory gesture saying the Chinese government will look at cutting auto import tariffs and ease restrictions on foreign ownership in its auto industry as well as strengthen intellectual property rights enforcement. The statement comes in the backdrop of U.S. President Trump's stand of punishing China for "stealing American intellectual property rights" as well as correcting the imbalance in bilateral trade of goods between the U.S. and China.
Amid heightened trade tensions between the two countries, Xi made the announcement in a speech on Tuesday, in which he hinted that his nation was open for business. However, he did not mention either Trump or the United States even once.
According to Voice of America, Xi mentioned the phrase "opening up" 42 times in his speech, with one of the key messages of his speech being China's openness for business. It was also an effort, one analyst said, to highlight a contrast between Beijing's approach and Washington. "I want to clearly tell everyone, China's door for opening will not close, but will only open wider," Xi said. "Cold war mentality and zero-sum game are more and more old-fashioned and outdated. Isolationism will only hit walls."
Chinese President Xi Jinping's announcement of opening the nation's banking and auto manufacturing sectors has attracted words of appreciation from U.S. President Donald Trump. "Very thankful for President Xi of China's kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers...also, his enlightenment on intellectual property and technology transfers. We will make great progress together!" tweeted Trump.
Last week, the Trump administration unveiled plans to impose tariffs on 1,300 Chinese products, worth about $50 billion a year in imports to the United States. It characterized those tariffs as a penalty for Beijing’s forcing American companies to hand over technology to gain entry to China’s market.
Within hours, Beijing counterpunched with similar plans to impose tariffs on $50 billion in American products, including soybeans and small aircraft. Then, Trump ordered the U.S. trade representative to consider another $100 billion in Chinese imports to tax.
Xi gave no details on how conditions might change, leaving unclear how he intends to mollify Washington. (With Agency inputs)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 11, 2018 10:41 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).