Highlights of this Month’s Edition
· Bilateral trade: The U.S. goods trade deficit with China rose 1.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2017; in services, the United States the U.S. trade surplus in China for 2016 hit an all-time high of $37.4 billion.
· Bilateral policy issues: At their first summit, Presidents Trump and Xi agree to reform a flagship bilateral dialogue and launch a 100-day plan for addressing economic and trade issues; the U.S. Treasury does not cite China as a currency manipulator and notes China’s intervention to strengthen its currency; the USTR calls China’s barriers to cloud computing incompatible with its WTO commitments, and identifies market access restrictions and domestic support for China’s agricultural sector; the United States challenges China at the WTO over its failure to fully report its subsidies and launches investigations to protect its domestic steel and aluminum industries.
· Quarterly review of China’s economy: China’s economy grew 6.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2017, fueled primarily by surging industrial activity, property investment, and credit growth.