The Trump administration wants China to import more cars, aircraft, soybeans and natural gas to meet Washington’s aim of cutting the US bilateral trade deficit by $100bn, according to people familiar with talks between the two countries.
Reducing the trade deficit through higher US exports could ease demands for curbs on Chinese exports to the US — and so help spare goods made by American companies in China from new US import tariffs.
Chinese envoy Liu He was asked for a written plan to reduce the US deficit during a White House meeting this month with treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and Gary Cohn, Mr Trump’s outgoing chief economic adviser, according to three people briefed on the discussions.
