Clete Willems Discusses China, USMCA Trade Negotiations with Global Media Outlets

October 16, 2019

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Akin Gump public law and policy partner Clete Willems has been broadly quoted in print and broadcast media discussing ongoing trade negotiations between the Trump administration and China and the partial agreement recently reached between the two governments as well as the importance of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement.

Prior to the announcement of the “phase one” agreement between the U.S. and China, Willems, who served as an international economics advisor to President Trump, spoke with Bloomberg—for its article “Trump Says Day One of U.S.-China Trade Talks Went Very Well”—on the significance of the meeting between the administration and China’s top negotiator, adding, “I’ve been in that room in the past, and the President’s direct involvement has always helped move things forward.”

Speaking again with Bloomberg, in its article “Trump’s China Deal Yields Plenty of Questions, and Critics,” Willems discussed the importance of the agreement in maintaining U.S./China relations, noting that it “won’t revolutionize the U.S.-China relationship or the terms of trade between us, but it shows that the two countries can work together on an important issue. Learning to do so is critical to avoid a broad deterioration of all aspects of our relationship, which is not in anyone’s long term interest.”

The Trump administration has received criticism on its unilateral approach to its trade negotiations with China, POLITICO reported in its October 14 Morning Trade daily digest. Willems noted that involving the World Trade Organization was not a viable option, as the U.S. wanted to set “tough measures” against China. He added, “In this situation where the problem was so urgent, it was hard to spend all your equity pushing the EU, when you really had to push China.” However, Willems agreed that the two countries need to work together to come to a real resolution, adding “I hope that we can both be ambitious together.”

Willems discussed both topics on a panel last week, as reported by Export Compliance Daily in its article “Former White House Official Says Big Deal With China Unlikely in Near Term,” where he echoed comments on President Trump’s unilateral approach to negotiations with China and discussed the potential impacts of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement on U.S. automakers, among other topics.

Meanwhile, with many trade deadlines approaching in the next few months, Reuters reports that the Trump administration has not been able to focus all of its resources on China.

Willems, in the article “Factbox: U.S. faces a gauntlet of trade deadlines before year-end,” said, “Significant problems with international trade have been festering for a long time and it’s true that the U.S. needed to break something. However, we didn’t need to break it all at the same time and could have been more focused on China from the start.”

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