The US and China on Thursday signed deals worth more than USD 250 billion, including an agreement on 300 Boeing planes, during President Donald Trump’s maiden visit amid his criticism of the Communist giant’s unfair business practices and the whopping USD 370 billion trade deficit. The deals were signed at a ceremony attended by Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People.
It included the purchase of US-made chipsets, jetliners and soybeans. Chinese and US companies signed trade and investment deals worth more than $250 billion, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Other official media reports put the figure around $253 billion.Facts have shown that China and the United States have huge potential in reciprocal economic and trade cooperation, Xi said.
Significantly, China also managed to push its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was earlier criticised by the US. China’s Silk Road Fund, a unit under the People’s Bank of China to promote the Belt and Road international trade initiative, will set up a joint fund with the US, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. China had set up a $40 billion Silk Road fund to assist the BRI projects.
Among a long list of agreements ranging from shale gas to car parts, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, the state energy group, signed a $43 billion deal to jointly explore natural gas with the US in Alaska, the Post report said. China’s sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp, will offer financial support. Bank of China, a Chinese state-owned bank, will help with finance, too Chinese phone makers, Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo will sign deals to buy products from Qualcomm, the US telecom mobile chip-maker.
The US tech firm Broadcom made a $105 billion takeover bid for Qualcomm earlier this month. China Investment Corp is to set up a joint fund with Goldman Sachs. Other deals include the Chinese purchase of planes from Boeing and the imports of Tesla cars into China, the report said. Ahead of his visit, Trump has said the massive trade deficit in bilateral trade is a shame and has been pressuring China to open Chinese markets more for US products and firms.
The US goods and services trade with China totalled to an estimated $648.2 billion in 2016 in which China had a lion’s share with about $478.9 billion exports. The US exports to China stood at $169.3 billion, according to US trade figures. China’s customs administration released figures showed a trade surplus of $26.6 billion with the US in October alone. Both sides inked deals worth $9 billion on Wednesday.
