Global Geopolitical Series: USTR’s comments suggest intensifying Sino-American trade spat

Comments coming from the  United States’ Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, just days after a spat between the United States and China at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leading to a failure to issue a joint consensual statements in its more than 30-years history, strongly suggests that not only President Trump of U.S. and President Xi Jinping would fail to resolve their differences during the meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in Argentina later this month, but the tariff war is about to escalate.

The war would automatically escalate next year as President Trump’s 10 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports would change higher to 25 percent. The financial markets have been hoping for a solution before then, and especially at the G20. But that now seems to be a far-fetched idea.

The Office of the United States’ Trade Representatives (USTR) published a report just 10-days before the much anticipated G20 meeting. The report looks into China’s unfair trade practices, as well as, China’s practices with regard to intellectual property.

A statement from the USTR Mr. Lighthizer said, “We completed this update as part of this Administration’s strengthened monitoring and enforcement effort…..This update shows that China has not fundamentally altered its unfair, unreasonable, and market-distorting practices that were the subject of the March 2018 report on our Section 301 investigation.”

Here is a link to the full report, https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/301Investigations/301%20Report%20Update.pdf