US Clips China Critic's Wings Ahead Of Trade Talks

The United States and China launch trade talks on Thursday in a bid to avert a damaging tariff war, with the White House’s harshest China critic relegated to a supporting role, senior Trump administration officials said.

Peter Navarro, the White House trade and manufacturing adviser, will not be a principal player on the US side, two officials said.

Instead, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will lead the American delegation.

Vice Premier Liu He, the top economic adviser to President Xi Jinping, is leading the Chinese side.

The two-day talks, part of a busy week of trade negotiations and tight deadlines, have become enmeshed in political intrigue after an earlier report said Peter Navarro was left out from the US delegation.

Navarro, the author of the book “Death by China”, has been the loudest “nationalist” voice on trade policy in the administration and a major advocate for punitive tariffs on Chinese goods to try to force Beijing to change its trade practices.

According to some press reports, Navarro sparred with Mnuchin over his handling of the China talks.

Meanwhile, Trump earlier on Wednesday denied caving to China over US sanctions on the telecoms equipment maker ZTE.

The comments followed Trump's surprise announcement on Sunday that the administration was exploring ways to soften the blow from a ban on exporting crucial US technology to the company, which Washington says violated sanctions and misled US officials.

"Nothing has happened with ZTE except as it pertains to the larger trade deal," Trump said on Twitter.

"China has seen our demands. There has been no folding as the media would love people to believe. The meetings haven't even started yet!"

However, Ross has said twice in the past week that the two sides had exchanged detailed lists of demands.

Trump's remarks followed a report last week that a Chinese state enterprise was pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into an Indonesian real estate development linked to the American president's business empire, prompting questions of possible quid-pro-quo for ZTE.

ZTE was fined US$1.2 billion in March 2017 but last month it was prohibited from receiving needed US parts after the Commerce Department found the company had lied multiple times and failed to take actions against employees responsible for sanctions violations on Iran and North Korea. (AFP, Reuters)