Still No Progress in Sino-American Trade Talks
The Economist reports that the Sino-American trade talks have achieved very little, despite US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s impressive links with China.Thus, the economic meetings, dubbed “Strategic Dialogue,” although producing very little of either, failed to meet their initial goal, namely to progress towards stronger economic ties.
The biggest, and seemingly irreconcilable, differences between the two countries are:
- China’s refusal to restrain the yuan’s rise against the dollar,
- the US taking a dispute over intellectual property rights to the WTO, and
- China’s regulators pressing domestic companies to list at the domestic stock exchange in Shanghai, rather than at the NYSE
Yet, there was also a positive announcement, namely plans to allow both countries to make surprise safety inspections of each other’s factories, which should improve overall safety standards.
