Just how far apart are China and the Trump regime on trade?
Well, the Trumps won't even agree to recognize the international rules that the United States wrote.
Sources who spoke to Reuters say the Trump regime outright rejected China's appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) when China's vice minister of commerce sat down for "talks" with officials from the Treasury Department for two days last week.
During the talks, Chinese negotiators repeatedly invoked what they said was Beijing’s compliance with WTO rules, an argument that did not impress the U.S. side.
One of the sources described the U.S. response as: “We’re not going to care about the WTO as you fuel overcapacity, wreck industries and steal IP (intellectual property). We’re not going to sit on our hands.”
All of the sources declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.
It's a perplexing thing to see American officials say they don't care about the WTO because the United States created the WTO. We wrote the rules and still hold considerable sway over the organization.
The World Trade Organization is the place to litigate claims about intellectual property or "overcapacity," not Twitter.
Sources who spoke to Reuters also say the Trump regime is standing by their demand that China reduce our trade deficit with them and, if you understand even single thing about trade, you know that's not how anything works. Our trade deficit with China may actually reach a record high this year because our economy is still healthy and Americans are buying lots of shit. The American appetite for lots of shit fuels our trade deficit. We buy more than we sell.