U.S. patience with China wears thin as trade-deal pledges are unmet

The U.S. is losing patience with China after the nation failed to meet its purchase commitments under the trade agreement reached during the Trump administration, according to American officials.

The U.S. has engaged with China’s government on the shortfalls, but hasn’t seen any real signs of the nation making good on its commitments over the last several months, the officials said, asking not to be named without permission to speak publicly.

While China continues to talk with the U.S., the Biden administration wants the nation to take concrete action, and that hasn’t happened, the officials said. The administration is continuing to press China to comply, but sees the experience thus far as illustrating the limits of the so-called phase-one deal that it inherited, the officials said.

China didn’t meet the purchasing targets in the agreement, in which it pledged to buy an extra $200 billion in U.S. agriculture, energy and manufactured products over the 2017 level in the two years through the end of 2021. At the same time, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has said repeatedly that the Biden administration’s concerns go beyond the purchase commitments and include Beijing’s state-centered industrial policy.

While U.S. December data won’t be available until Tuesday, data through November show that China’s imports from the U.S. amounted to less than 60% of its pledges. Beijing also committed to combating the theft of U.S. intellectual property and opening up its domestic market to U.S. financial service providers.

The Biden administration took months at its start to review its predecessor’s policy toward China and deliberate on a new direction to deal with Beijing’s economic practices, putting its initial focus on domestic policy and Covid-19 relief. The U.S. has maintained tariffs on more than $300 billion of annual Chinese exports as leverage.

Biden last month said that he’d like to be in a position to say that China is meeting more of the nation’s commitments and therefore some tariffs can be lifted, but “we’re not there yet.”

Last month, both Tai and her deputy in charge of Asia, Sarah Bianchi, said talks with Chinese counterparts on trade issues have been “difficult.”

China’s lack of compliance with the deal is the purview of the USTR and the White House is in close touch with Tai’s office about updates on the process, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian described the two nations’ trade relationship as “mutually beneficial” during a regular press briefing on Monday in Beijing.

“Issues in trade should be properly resolved in the spirit of mutual respect and equal-footed consultation,” he added.