Under Biden, Trump's Chinese Policy Will Continue
Details of US Chinese policy under new administration begin to emerge. While they testify to the continuation of the tough confrontational line towards China.
The newly elected President of the United States announced, that he intends to appoint to the position of the US Trade Representative Catherine Tay - the main trade adviser for the Democratic Party in the budget committee of the House of Representatives. Ty will replace Robert Lighthizer in this position..
Catherine Tai
The new figure is interesting in a number of ways. Katherine Tai is ethnic Chinese and speaks fluent Chinese. Before the formation of the PRC, her family fled to Taiwan, then moved to the USA. Previously, Tai dealt with controversial U.S. trade relations with China and the EU., participated in negotiations on a new free trade zone agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Despite being a Democratic, Tai won the support of prominent Republican congressmen. In this way, confirms bipartisan agreement in the United States on countering the economic development of the PRC. This means an increase in anti-Chinese sentiment in American ruling circles..
Former member of the US delegation to trade negotiations with China, Cleit Willems, who worked with Tai on the National Economic Council, He speaks: “She will help draw a tough line on China… She is not a weakling and will be able to defend US interests against such countries, like China ".
US President-elect in trade and economic disputes with China will try to build a united anti-Chinese front of European and Asian allies. In contrast, Trump preferred to confront China unilaterally., going to confrontation in trade matters, for example increasing tariffs on Chinese goods, often for reasons of national security, not for trade reasons. And Biden has stated repeatedly, that will not immediately reduce tariffs on Chinese imports, which Trump introduced: they say, first need to consult with allies.
In fact, We are talking about the likelihood of a return of the Biden administration to the project of the Transatlantic and Trans-Pacific Trade and Investment Partnerships launched under Obama, respectively with the EU and APEC. According to the new plan, the US will have to establish favorable trade rules and standards in these free trade and investment zones - tariffs, arbitration rules, product standards, technical regulations, etc..
None of these partnerships involve PRC. And if this is clear with regard to the Transatlantic Partnership, the Trans-Pacific Partnership was conceived from the very beginning against China. Trump pulled the US out of these projects, but if they were carried through, then the exposed barriers would significantly hinder the penetration of Chinese goods and investment into the main markets for the PRC (USA, ES and JUVA).
Apparently, China is ready for a general Euro-Atlantic offensive and is acting ahead of the curve as in the Asian, and in European directions.
In November 15 APEC member countries and regional partners of this association, including China, signed an agreement on a regional comprehensive economic partnership (RSEP), which became one of the largest free trade agreements. For the first time, China has entered into a general agreement with US allies in Asia - South Korea and Japan, but the United States itself was not included in the RSEP. And the other day it became clear, that the PRC is at a critical stage in concluding the same comprehensive investment partnership agreement with the European Union. The success of the agreement is almost a foregone conclusion, it is in the interests of the EU, who has long been trying to get the same conditions from the PRC for European companies to enter the Chinese market, what Chinese goods have on the European market.
This agreement will expand Europeans' access to the Chinese market, securing sectoral commitments to remove or reduce barriers (joint venture requirements and investment prohibitions). The agreement will cover industrial production, Financial services, the property, building, ancillary services to support shipping and air transport.
At the same time, the acceleration of the trade and investment deal between the PRC and the EU immediately followed the proposal of the European Commission to President-elect Biden of a "new transatlantic agenda of global change", which is based on "Striving to unite Europe and the United States in a global alliance". obviously, Beijing overtook the United States in securing favorable conditions for trade and investment partnership with the European Union, preventing the formation of a joint US-EU front against the PRC in world trade.
About, what choice was the EU, can be judged by the words of Frederic Kempe - President of the Atlantic Council, one of the most influential US think tanks. He claims, what EU officials said in a conversation with him the other day, what “They are torn between the opportunity to complete one of the best investment deals, ever offered by China, and the desire to take advantage of the early days of the Biden administration, to dramatically improve transatlantic relations ".
As a result, the Europeans decided not to be seduced by the prospects in relations with America., choosing the benefits of trade and economic cooperation with the PRC. And with the United States, China will lead a different, hard bargaining on other, than suggested to Europeans, conditions of.
Today it can also be argued, what shopping (and not only) the rivalry between the United States and China has already gone beyond the political competition Trump / Biden and became the content of the course of American TNCs.
The title photo: REUTERS Kevin Lamarque
Victor PIROZHENKO
