TBL Thinks: US China Talks in London
Dear Readers,
It’s Thinking Time! This week, we focus on London and the pivotal US-China negotiations. The tea is steeping as genuine efforts are being made to align interests between East and West.
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US and China Trade Talks in London
Representatives from US and China met in London yesterday and today to continue negotiations over shipments of technology and rare earth elements. The US delegation was led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, while the Chinese delegation was led by Vice Premier He Lifeng, along with the country’s commerce minister and trade representative.
The main agenda of these trade talks revolves around export controls, especially as tensions between the two countries escalated post-Geneva in May. The WSJ writes that “the trade war between Washington and Beijing has, in recent weeks, veered away from tariffs, focusing instead on each country’s restrictions on material or products the other side desperately needs.” Since the trade talks in May, trust between both countries eroded as each accused the other of undermining the agreement reached in Geneva. The US accused China of dragging its heels on approvals to export rare earth licenses, while China accused the US of undermining the agreement when the US issued a warning against the use of some artificial-intelligence chips from China’s Huawei Technologies. The communist country also saw the Trump administration’s move to revoke visas of Chinese students as the US dialing up pressure in its negotiations with China.