Economist: Stress China-US cooperation

For economist Yukon Huang, the upcoming meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump could be a great opportunity to pursue win-win cooperation, even on some contentious issues.

While the trade deficit has been a key concern for the Trump administration, Huang, a senior fellow at the Asia program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that the Chinese side should indicate it is willing to help.

But he said China should make it clear that it does not want the US to constrain Chinese exports, a move that will hurt China and not benefit the US because US consumers would have to buy from elsewhere at higher prices.

"That is not good for Americans," said Huang, a former World Bank country director for China.

Huang said China should offer to buy more US manufactured goods, but there are security restrictions, restrictions that Chinese buyers don't face in Europe.

He suggested that the two sides could work out a review and monitoring process and the US should show its willingness to make it happen.

"It's good for you (US), because you have strength in these areas," Huang said of what the Chinese side should tell the US at the meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on April 6-7.

Though Huang sees uncertainty in the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) negotiated under President Barack Obama's administration because Trump's deep concern of US companies investing overseas, he believes China should still push for the arrangement.

The BIT is good for China and good for the US, Huang said.

He suggested that China should further indicate its willingness to moderate restrictions on foreign investment in the service sector. And if China does that, many US companies will benefit because the US domestic market is already saturated and these US companies only make profits by investing and operating more abroad.

Huang believes that there will be more jobs created at home because the activities of US companies overseas need to be supported by jobs at home.

"So this is truly win-win," he said.

Huang said China should also make it clear that it has not expanded its exports by manipulating exchange rates or repressing wages, but rather through improvements in infrastructure and productivity over the past decades.

The Trump administration has proposed $1 trillion in infrastructure spending over the next 10 years to rebuild roads, bridges, railways and airports, but the source of funding is in serious question.

Huang, who has also worked at the US Treasury Department, said the Chinese side should indicate that China is very happy for its companies to be supportive of the US' infrastructure needs, in the form of partnerships between Chinese companies and private US companies.

"Therefore, they are not a budgetary burden (in the US)," Huang said, adding that Chinese households save a lot while Americans don't save very much.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com