A former U.S. trade representative has said that the current deadlock between the world’s two largest economies China and the United States won’t end soon.
According to Timothy Stratford, a managing partner at law firm Covington & Burling, the main obstacle to resolving the trade conflict are systematic differences on policies. He added that due to the complexity of the issues in question “we can expect that there’s going to be a deadlock for some time.”
Stratford, who made the comments during the World Economic Forum in Tianjin on Wednesday, is a long-term China resident who resigned from his government post eight years ago. He used to be minister-counselor for economic affairs at the U.S. embassy in Beijing.
Washington and Beijing have for some time imposed tariffs on each other’s imports, with the Trump administration continuously introducing new tariffs which are always almost immediately followed by retaliatory measures by China, sparking fears of a full-blown trade war.
On Tuesday, Xi’s government announced retaliatory duties on $60 billion worth of American goods, a day after the U.S. slapped 10 percent of tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports. According to Chinese state media, the situation will only make the country “stronger.”
Stratford believes that Chinese officials “are convinced that the way they plan economic development in key sectors is the most successful way for them to become industry leaders, so they don’t want to back away from that.”
He further stressed that Beijing doesn’t want to agree to what the U.S. is asking of it as it doesn’t believe it is in its best interest. As a result, neither side may be ready to reach a compromise, he warned.
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