The Trump administration in the United States is increasingly concerned about the supposed “unfair” trade practices of China, a rising global economic powerhouse, and could soon initiate an investigation into their trade practices in order to determine a response.
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According to an official speaking with Reuters, Trump is encouraging U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lightizer to enact an investigation into Chinese trade under the 1974 Trade Act section 301, which allows the President of the U.S. to apply various restrictions against alleged “unfair trade practices” of other countries, or against countries that engage in “discriminatory” actions that “burden” U.S. interests.
The statute has not seen much use by the U.S. since the founding of the World Trade Organization in 1995.
China recently imposed several conditions on U.S. companies operating in China, including mandating that companies set-up joint ventures, lower the prices for license keys for patents, and that Western automakers shift most of their research toward electric car production.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross accused China of “distorting” markets in a Tuesday Wall Street Journal opinion piece, saying this occurs because they are “not a market economy.” He said the Trump administration will use "every available tool" to counter those who "plege allegiance to free trade while violating its core principles."
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U.S. officials also allege that China has violated U.S. intellectual property.
China has rapidly risen to become a global economic powerhouse in recent years, aiming not only to become a center of world trade through the Belt and Road Initiative, but also to become a leading world producer of advanced technology, such as driverless cars, environmental technologies, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence by the year 2025.
Chinese leadership has repeatedly emphasized that fair and normal trade between the two nations is mutually beneficial, but recent months have seen the U.S. put increasing pressure on China, justified as a way of pressuring them to “reign-in” the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
While national level China-U.S. relations have suffered, that hasn't stopped the pursuit of bilateral relations at the sub-national level, including with individual states within the U.S.
On Tuesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Michigan Governor Rick Snyder in Beijing, where he encouraged U.S. states to increase investment and two-way trade.
“China welcomes U.S. states, including Michigan, to … engance bilateral trade and investment, .. and consolidate and expand cooperative consensus to create better development opportunities and jobs for both coutnries' peoples,” the Premier told the Michigan Governor, according to a Chinese government statement.