(Washington) US Trade Representative, Catherine Tye, said on Wednesday that the United States is closely studying the trade agreement signed with China by the Trump administration, in particular to assess promises that have been fulfilled.
“With regard to China’s procurement obligations under the Sino-U.S. Trade Agreement, we are reviewing the results,”I Tye during a Senate committee hearing, where she was questioned on the matter by several elected officials.
She added that Washington is also studying the “options” available to it to implement its promises from China.
The two countries signed the so-called “phase one” trade agreement in January 2020. Beijing pledged to increase its purchases of US products and services by at least $ 200 billion during 2020 and 2021.
Catherine Tye said the inventory should assess commitments that have already been made or not, as well as those that have not been fulfilled at the promised level.
She said that China’s “ability” to fulfill its obligations to the United States is a “priority.”
And she emphasized, “We focus heavily on this agreement” and on “testing its utility and making the most of the tools provided” in this context.
The US Trade Representative also indicated that the temporary meeting, scheduled under the agreement every six months, “has not been planned yet.”
Nor has she met her Chinese counterpart since taking office in March.
China failed to fulfill all of its obligations at the end of the first quarter of 2021, according to Chad Bowen, a researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).
Using international trade data from the two countries, it was found that China’s purchases only reached 61 to 75 percent of the target.
The deal, which was to end a two-year trade war between China and the United States, nonetheless kept US tariffs at 25% on a batch of $ 250 billion in Chinese goods and industrial components, and Chinese retaliation by more than a dollar. $ 100 billion in imports from the United States.
The Biden administration has consistently advocated maintaining these tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.
