It is “profoundly important” for the two greatest economies in the world to maintain a solid economic relationship, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who launched negotiations with Chinese government representatives on Monday.
As U.S. businesses have reported facing more difficulties doing business in China, and as China has severely criticized U.S. measures to restrict its access to advanced semiconductors, Raimondo is aiming to strengthen commercial ties.
Since the two nations exchange more than $700 billion in goods annually, Raimondo claimed that everyone in the world anticipates that the United States and China will have a stable economic relationship.
“It’s a complicated relationship. “It’s a challenging relationship. We will of course disagree on certain issues,” Raimondo added. “I think we can make progress if we are direct, open, and practical.”
On Monday, Raimondo will have a two-hour meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao as part of his three days of discussions with Chinese and business leaders to improve relations.
Wang praised Raimondo’s comments that she favors trading with China and added that US-China economic relations matter not just to the two countries but also to the rest of the globe.
To “foster a more favorable policy environment for stronger cooperation between our businesses to support bilateral trade and investment in a stable and predictable manner,” he said he was prepared to cooperate.
As stated by Raimondo, the US and China “worked over the summer to establish new information exchanges and working groups that will enable us to have more consistent engagement in our relationship.”
The idea that the United States and China would agree to form a working group to discuss export restrictions on advanced semiconductor chips has drawn criticism from some Republicans in Congress.
Any debate of American export restrictions intended to impede Beijing’s military development has been ruled off-limits by Raimondo.
Of course, there is no place for compromise or negotiation when it comes to problems of national security, she added, noting that the vast majority had no bearing on such issues.
Raimondo will attend a display of personal care products in China later on Monday as an illustration of that.
