Clete Willems Speaks with Yahoo! Finance on State of U.S.-China Trade Talks
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Yahoo! Finance has quoted incoming Akin Gump public law and policy partner Clete Willems in the article “Former Trump trade official: U.S. is trying to empower Chinese reformers.” Willems, who previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, shared his thoughts on the trade talks between Washington and Beijing after having served until last month as one of the lead trade negotiators.
“I think there’s a perception that everyone is generally in lockstep, that politics doesn’t influence things. But I found that that wasn’t the case at all — and that you had a broad array of folks both reformers as well as hardliners, but that each put pressure on President Xi [Jinping] at different times during the negotiations,” said Willems. The reformers, he added, are the people who recognize that a trade deal will benefit China, though he admitted to being surprised by how much China’s delegation retreated from its earlier commitments after the most recent round of talks.
Still, Willems told Yahoo! he thinks there will eventually be a deal, though it may take time.
“I think it’s good that some of the most aggressive actions haven’t been taken yet. I think both sides want to leave space for a potential deal,” said Willems. He added that, while “it’s clear that this continued tension hurts both of our economies,” he thinks President Trump’s perspective “is that the U.S. is in a better position economically to be able to sustain this.”
That said, Willems pointed out that the administration is trying to mitigate the impact on American consumers and farmers and make the situation more sustainable over the long term. He pointed to the exception process for the increased tariffs on Chinese goods and the lifting of steel and aluminum tariffs for Canada and Mexico.
“I think that’s going to make things better for farmers and better enable the U.S. to continue its strategy,” said Willems. He added, “We need to take care of the agriculture sector in the short term where we can, but at the end of the day if there is a deal it’s going to be much better for them over the long term.”
Willems, who starts at Akin Gump next week (click here to learn more), also appeared on the Yahoo! Finance Video program “On the Move” and the FOX Business program “Mornings with Maria" discussing the trade talks (click here and here to watch the interviews).