U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is in Beijing with a simple message: buy more from us. His two-day visit with Chinese officials, who’ve also been jetting to and from Washington, is aimed at trying to reduce the U.S. trade deficit.
CGTN’s Owen Fairclough reports.

China IS selling far more to the U.S. than it buys. The Trump administration claims this weakens the U.S. economy, fueling tensions that have threatened a trade war. China has pledged to import billions of dollars of U.S. goods to reduce the deficit.

Just this week, China announced that starting in July it will cut tariffs on nearly 1,500 consumer goods by more than half. The goal is to boost consumption of both domestic and imported products.

Even so, the U.S. trade secretary is aiming for more profound change to redress a trade imbalance that has grown ever wider over the last decade.

“We’ve got a lot more work to do,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “I want to be clear. This isn’t just about buying more goods. It’s about structural changes.”

But even if increased Chinese consumption helps, another dispute over intellectual property is unresolved.

Terry Haines discusses the latest progress in U.S.-China trade talks