US-China trade talks: What to expect

New York: Chinese and US trade representatives at the highest levels of government are readying to meet in Washington DC on Thursday for the two countries’ 13th round of negotiations. Both sides have raised import duties on billions of dollars worth of each other’s goods after the US began the fight and each one is ratcheting up the pressure ahead of the coming meetings against a tumultuous political backdrop in the US where an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is raging.
IANS interviewed Richard Nephew, author, “The Art of Sanctions” and Research Scholar at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs about the trajectory of the trade talks, and what it means for countries who have a ringside view of the US-China face-off and are waiting to step in and profit.
Highlights from the conversation are below: IANS: In your latest Brookings paper, you say that “the events of the last 10 years suggest that Chinese economic sanctions policy is at an inflection point — both in terms of capabilities and readiness”. What does this mean for the US and China and for countries that are standing by and hope to profit from the impasse? Richard Nephew: “I think the thing that has shifted most is that China is a lot more capable and a lot more willing to use economic tools in order to get its own way in foreign policy. This is something the United States has been doing for a number of years, we’ve seen this with regard to sanctions policy going back 30-40 years.
But for China, over the course of the last 50-60 years, they have emphasized mostly economic integration and getting access to the rest of the global economy for development purposes. Now, they’re starting to see that they can use their access for foreign policy power, which changes things considerably. It means that the Chinese are going to have not only the ability to influence events around the world but also the desire to use their economy to their advantage.