2021/6/10
Chinese and U.S. commerce ministers agreed to push forward trade and investment links in their first call since the start of the Biden administration.
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and his counterpart Gina Raimondo “agreed to promote the healthy development of pragmatic cooperation in trade and investment,” in a phone call Thursday morning China time. The two “exchanged views frankly and pragmatically on relevant issues and mutual concerns,” according to a Chinese government statement.
The call was the third between senior officials in recent weeks, after Vice Premier Liu He spoke with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
China stated last week that normal communications between the two countries have started, according to Commerce Ministry Spokesman Gao Feng. The two sides have agreed to pragmatically solve some issues for producers and consumers, and promote healthy, stable economic and trade ties, he said.
However, U.S. statements on the relationship with China aren’t so positive. The trade relationship with China has “significant imbalance” and the Biden administration is committed to leveling it, Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on the weekend before a meeting of Asia-Pacific trade ministers.
There are parts of the U.S.-China relationship “that are unhealthy and have over time been damaging in some very important ways to the U.S. economy,” she said.
“I won’t get overly excited” about the call, said Alvin Tan, head of Asia currency strategy at RBC Capital Markets LLC. “It’s positive in the sense that both countries are stepping up” economic and trade communication, but no game-changing decisions or announcements have come out, he said.
The offshore yuan reversed losses to gain as much as 0.1% at 9:32 a.m. in Shanghai, while the benchmark 10-year government bond yield extended declines to two basis points. The onshore yuan opened 0.1% higher at 6.38 per dollar.
