China US trade deal

Last week, President Xi Jingping welcomed a new consensus. The list of US grievances against Chinese trade practices is long. It includes forced technology transfers, inadequate protection of intellectual property rights, subsidization of trading activities, etc. Trump administration wants the Chinese to make concessions on all of these activities as the trade deficit of US is higher.

Most of the US grievances against China are shared by US allies as well. Europe accounts for more trade deficit. The Chinese trade exports are larger than that of US.

Some even see Chinese approach as a divide and conquer approach as china has remained silent on the trade deals with Europe. On the other hand it is moving forward on the consensus with the US. It was also evidently seen on the agreement signed between Italy and China on the Belt Road Initiative.

Once the consensus is finalised the EU is worried that the Trump administration will push for EU consensus on the US.