At the opening of China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the usual pledge to continue to open up China’s market. He listed a handfuls of measures taken since last year, and claimed they showed “we do honour our commitments” and “we will deliver on what we have promised”. He added that “China will throw open its arms, and provide more market opportunities, investment opportunities and growth opportunities for countries in the world, so we can share the growth together.”
Separately, it’s reported that China is pushing for more tariff reliefs by the US for phase 1 trade deal. It’s requesting US to scrap the tariffs scheduled for December 15, on round USD 156B in Chinese imports, including electronic goods and toys. Additionally, China wanted US to drop the 15% tariffs on about USD 125B goods that started on September , as well as some reliefs from earlier 25% tariffs on around USD 250B of imports from machinery and semiconductors to furniture.
However, overall expectations on the so called phase one deal are rather low. China is not expected to do anything substantive in terms of addressing any of the structural problems, including forced technology transfer. More importantly, there is no indication from China on addressing the subsidies to and privileges of state-owned enterprises in the Chinese markets.
