U.S. and Chinese economic chiefs sidestepped their differences over North Korea and steel imports ahead of a high-level forum in which the Trump administration is seeking clear commitments from China to open its markets.
“There remains serious imbalances which we must work to rectify,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Tuesday in Washington at an event organized by the U.S.-China Business Council, a nonprofit group representing more than 200 American companies that do business in China. “It is time to rebalance our trade and investment relationship in a more fair, equitable and reciprocal direction.”
Ross spoke at the gathering along with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, a day before the U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, or CED, in Washington. The forum for economic and trade talks was agreed to in April, when President Donald Trump met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Florida and developed a 100-day action plan. The talks led to China re-opening its markets to U.S. beef and pledging to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas, while allowing greater access to its financial services sector.
