Schwarzman, who also is the chairman of Blackstone, a New York private equity firm, said the summit is to "figure out how we can give advice [to respective governments] that is practical - what solutions could be relatively easy". Accomplishing those aims would allow trade, investment and non-tariff trade barriers to be "moved aside relatively easily", he said.
Ross acknowledged that "serious imbalances" between the US and China "must be rectified". But he said the private sector "is best equipped to carry the ball across the goal line".
The appeal came a day before the US and China are to hold the first high level Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, co-chaired by Ross, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, one of four mechanisms set by China's President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump during their first summit in Florida early April.
At that time, Trump's tone on China had softened. During his presidential campaign last year, Trump blamed China for dumping low-priced steel on the American marketplace and having a trade deficit with the US. After the pair met at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April, he spoke of having "great chemistry" with Xi and agreed to a 100-day plan for trade talks with China. Last week, however, Trump accused China of "dumping steel and destroying our steel industry," and vowed to halt the practice, possibly using punitive extra tariffs.
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At a US-China Business Council event in Washington on Tuesday, Wang Yang downplayed the possibility of an emerging trade war. He credited the US business community's "long-standing support and active participation" with "helping to create an atmosphere in favour of cooperation rather than confrontation for China-US business ties". He said "twists and turns in our cooperation going forward" are part of the countries' evolving relationship.
The two nations agreed in May to allow the US to export beef and natural gas to China and for certain financial services to expand in the Chinese market. Since then, efforts to fill in a bilateral trade deficit of about US$340 billion (NZ$462b) through negotiations have produced minimal results.
"On the economic side [of negotiation], there is progress, but very limited," said Scott Kennedy, a China specialist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. "The Trump administration became dissatisfied and lost a little bit of patience with China on some of these things."
Trump's promise on last Thursday during a flight from Washington to Paris on Air Force One to use quotas and tariffs to stop China's "dumping" policy - indicate that the White House could take unilateral action against Chinese steel imports. China is not one of the US' top 10 steel importing sources, according to data released by the US Commerce Department in March.
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Possible tariffs on big foreign steel exporters, including China, could be potentially in the 20 per cent range, Axios, a US news and information website launched last year by the co-founder of Politico, reported in late June. The report, embraced by Ross and backed by White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, also said tariffs could eventually be extended to other imports, including aluminium and semiconductors.
On China's side, Cui Tiankai, the country's ambassador to Washington, warned the US last Thursday of "troubling developments" between the two sides that could "derail" the bilateral relationship, broadly citing "issues that concern China's vital interests and the issues that concern the critical foundation of our relations".
"I'm afraid the people behind such actions are either those who refuse to let go and update their mindset or those who play selfish political games, regardless of the big picture," Cui said during an event that was part of the US National Governors Association's meeting in Providence, Rhode Island.
At the event, Cui also called on governors of US states to "make efforts to resume the negotiation and conclude the BIT", a bilateral investment treaty between China and the US that is to address market access issues in each economy. The BIT has seen 33 rounds of negotiations over the last five years, and has been "shelved by the new [Trump] administration".
The Trump administration is reluctant to restart BIT negotiations. US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said in early June that the BIT is "on our agenda. I would not say it's on the top of our agenda".
"China is still interested in negotiating the BIT while the administration is waiting to see how the next 100 days go," said Deborah Lehr, senior fellow at the Paulson Institute, a Chicago-based think tank founded by former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. "The administration has said that if they are not able to make progress on minor issues with China, then there's no reason to pick up the BIT negotiation."
- South China Morning Post
