Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Guangzhou, southern China, April 6, 2024 (AFP/Pedro Pardo)
Washington and Beijing agreed to have “intensive discussions on balanced growth”, the US Treasury said in a statement released on Saturday following two days of talks between Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Guangzhou.
These upcoming exchanges represent a new attempt to stabilize tense relations between the world’s two largest economies since the meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping last November.
“These exchanges will facilitate a discussion on macroeconomic imbalances … and I intend to use this opportunity to advocate for a level playing field for American workers and businesses,” Yellen said in a statement. separated.
The United States fears that the massive subsidies injected by the Chinese government into technologies, green energy, electric vehicles and even batteries will flood the global market with low-cost products, putting companies in these sectors outside China in difficulty. .
Ms. Yellen said on Friday that the subsidies paid by Beijing to the industry represented “a risk for global economic resilience”, by creating “overcapacity” of production. She said she discussed this issue for “more than two hours” on Saturday morning with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng.
Beijing has dismissed Western concerns and last month denounced an EU investigation into its electric vehicle subsidies, describing it as “protectionism.”
Ms. Yellen suggested on Saturday that progress had been made between the two sides on this point.
“I think the Chinese realize how concerned we are about the implications of their industrial strategy for the United States, about the possibility of flooding our markets with export products that are difficult for American companies to compete with, and that other countries have the same concerns,” stressed Ms. Yellen.
The problem will take time to resolve, but agreeing to a dialogue “offers a structured way to continue to listen to each other and see if we can find a way forward while avoiding conflict “, she added.
– Direction Beijing –
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks to journalists after her meeting with her Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Guangzhou, April 6, 2024 (AFP/Pedro Pardo)
Ms. Yellen was then due to head to Beijing for two days of high-level talks with Chinese leaders.
Ms. Yellen’s visit, her second to China in a year, comes at a time when Washington and Beijing disagree on a number of subjects, such as access to cutting-edge technologies, the future of Taiwan or the video application TikTok.
The US Treasury Secretary also warned on Saturday Chinese companies that would help Russia in its war in Ukraine. She believes that “companies, particularly Chinese ones, must not provide material support to Russia’s war against Ukraine, to the Russian defense industry” and threatened “significant consequences” to those who do so.
“We have been clear with China that we consider that Russia benefits from the support of the goods that China and Chinese companies provide to it,” a subject “on which we are working together,” Ms. Yellen told reporters in Canton.
The US Treasury press release also specifies that Beijing and Washington are “committed to working together on common challenges, including climate finance and debt issues in emerging and low-income economies”.
Final preparations before the meeting between Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and her Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Guangzhou, April 6, 2024 (AFP/Pedro Pardo)
The two countries also want to intensify the joint fight against money laundering within the framework of a bilateral “financial working group”, with a first meeting “in the coming weeks”.
Washington has repeatedly called on Beijing to cooperate to stem the devastating trafficking of fentanyl, a synthetic opiate often originating from factories in China and sold illicitly in the United States.
Presidents Biden and Xi agreed to cooperate on this issue during their November summit in California, which helped stabilize bilateral relations somewhat.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also expected to visit China in the coming weeks, a further sign of the resumption of normal trade between the two powers.
© 2024 AFP
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