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July 24, 2017

U.S.-China Dialogue Fails To Bring Agreement On Steel Overcapacity

Last Wednesday, leaders from the U.S. and Chinese governments met as part of the U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue. According to Reuters, during the talks U.S. negotiators, including U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, made “demands for access to China's financial services markets, reducing excess Chinese steel capacity, reductions in auto tariffs, cutting subsidies for state-owned enterprises, ending Chinese requirements for data localization, and lifting ownership caps for foreign firms in China.”

The discussions, unfortunately, quickly broke down. As CNBC reported, “The annual economic dialogue session in Washington ended with canceled news conferences, no joint statement and no new announcements on U.S. market access to China.”

Steel overcapacity reportedly was a major reason for the cancellations. According to Politico’s “Morning Trade,” Chinese officials “balked at U.S. pressure to agree to specific cuts in production capacity and the United States was unwilling to move onto other concerns.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross issued a short statement after the meeting that said Chinese officials “acknowledged our shared objective to reduce the trade deficit which both sides will work cooperatively to achieve.”

Click here to watch the deliberations.

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