China Trade Deals In Place For Payments, With Some Issues Outstanding

Trade deals are newly in place between China and the United States and touch on, as The New York Times reported, electronic payments services, and livestock and yet leave questions about larger trade issues that are still extant between the two superpowers.

The deals were announced Thursday (May 11), and noted the publication, hint that the relationship between the countries may run a bit smoother than President Donald Trump may have implied with his campaign rhetoric that promised tough trade negotiations.

The new announcements state that U.S. and other foreign firms are going to be able to provide credit rating services in China and that China will also propose “public guidelines” that U.S. companies can offer electronic payments services in that country as well.  The flip side is that the United States will send National Security and Commerce Department officials to Beijing for a trade forum this weekend and that the delegation is in effect sending a signal that the U.S. “recognizes the importance,” as the Times put it, of China’s emerging economic/foreign policy plan that seeks to broaden China’s presence in East Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Other agreements centered on beef and poultry imports and exports.

But even against a backdrop where more favorable trade overtures to China are emerging as, Trump has noted, China could help defuse tension in the region over North Korea’s nuclear efforts, while other areas have not yet been addressed, ranging from steel to auto parts.

As is germane to payments, China stated that July 16 is a date set for foreign firms to offer guidelines on how electronic services could be offered.  That runs in a bit of contrast to earlier U.S. positions struck during the Obama administration that held that electronic payments services should be offered without new guidelines.