Chinese envoy to U.S. urges stable commercial ties despite trade conflicts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China’s new ambassador to the United States on Monday called for stable and constructive trade ties between the world’s two largest economies as they struggle to resolve political and trade differences, a trade group said.

The envoy, Qin Gang, spoke in an online meeting with the CEOs of large US companies who sit on the board of the US-China Business Council, the group said in a statement on Monday.

“The ambassador’s message to CEOs was that as we work harder to resolve disagreements, the relationship must thrive and grow,” said Craig Allen, president of the nonprofit group of 200 US companies working with China.

The meeting came days after US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a telephone conversation to agree on the need to ensure that competition between their nations does not come into conflict.

Allen said the entire US-China relationship was “in a difficult position” at the moment, but Qin told the group that their commercial ties remain strong.

Allen attended the meeting and has met the ambassador several times since arriving at his new post in August.

US companies are increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of the Biden government’s review of China’s trade policies and the continuation of tariffs on hundreds of billions of goods traded between the two countries.

The preliminary phase 1 trade deal, which expires later this year, called on China to increase US export purchases by $ 200 billion over two years, but Beijing is well behind on that target, in part because of COVID-19 -Pandemic.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)