US trade representative says new tariffs will be imposed if trade negotiations are not achieved by the 90-day deadline

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

US-China trade negotiations must achieve success by 1 March or new tariffs will be imposed, the US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, said on Sunday, clarifying the “hard deadline” after a week of seeming confusion among Donald Trump and his advisers.

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Global markets are jittery about a collision between the world’s two largest economic powers over China’s huge trade surplus with the US and US claims that China is stealing intellectual property and technology.

“As far as I am concerned it is a hard deadline,” Lighthizer told CBS’s Face the Nation. “When I talk to the president of the United States he is not talking about going beyond March.”

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That was a reference to Trump’s recent decision to delay new tariffs while talks proceed.

“The way this is set up is that at the end of 90 days, these tariffs will be raised,” said Lighthizer, who has been tapped to lead the talks and appeared to tamp down expectations that the negotiation period could be extended.

After a turbulent week in markets, investors “can be reassured that if there is a deal that can be made that will assure the protection of US technology … and get additional market access … the president wants us to do it”, Lighthizer said. “If not we will have tariffs.”

In Argentina last weekend, Trump and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, agreed to a truce that delayed the planned 1 January US hike of tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200bn of Chinese goods.

However, the arrest of a top executive at China’s Huawei Technologies has roiled global markets amid fears that it could further inflame the China-US trade row. In Beijing on Sunday, China’s foreign ministry protested about the arrest to the US ambassador.

In a series of appearances on Sunday morning talkshows, Lighthizer, the economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, and trade adviser, Peter Navarro, insisted trade talks with China would not be derailed by the arrest, which they deemed solely a law enforcement matter.

US equity markets have staked much on the outcome of the talks. Stocks climbed early in the week, then cratered after Trump claimed he was a “tariff man” after all. He also seemed to indicate the talks could be extended.

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Lighthizer, in his first comments since being appointed to lead the negotiations, said the US will need concessions in a number of areas if the higher tariffs are to be voided.

That includes demands for increased purchases of US goods in a more open Chinese market, as well as “structural changes” to a system that, for example, forces American firms to turn over technology to Chinese partners as a condition of doing business.

“We need agricultural sales and we need manufacturing sales. We need structural changes on this fundamental issue of non-economic technology transfer,” Lighthizer said.

The demands are similar to those made under other Democratic and Republican presidents, but Lighthizer said he felt Trump’s willingness to go beyond “dialogue” and impose tariffs will produce results.