CHINA/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “By the time American negotiators wrapped up high-level talks with a visiting Chinese delegation last week, President Trump’s ambitions for a multibillion-dollar trade agreement had, for the time being, shriveled into a blandly worded communiqué without any dollar figures. It was not clear that the talks set a path to success. Ceaseless infighting and jockeying for influence on the White House’s trade team helped deprive Mr. Trump of a quick victory on his most cherished policy agenda, several people involved in the talks said. The deep internal divisions carried over into how officials characterized the agreement and muddied the outlook for the next phase of the negotiations between Washington and Beijing. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday [5-20-18] that the United States would hold off on imposing tariffs on China, putting the trade war ‘on hold,’ but hours later, the United States trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, warned the Chinese that the Trump administration might yet impose tariffs. On Friday [5-18-18], Mr. Trump’s chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, told reporters that China had offered to reduce its trade surplus with the United States by $200 billion. Two days later, he said that the number was merely a ‘rough ballpark estimate,’ and that the two countries never expected to reach an agreement and merely planned to issue a statement laying out next steps.”
-Mark Landler and Ana Swanson, “Chances of China Trade Win Undercut by Trump Team Infighting,” The New York Times online, May 21, 2018