Hypocritical platitudes will not solve Sino-U.S. trade disputes

Washington and Beijing need to move beyond hollow platitudes if they are to settle their trade differences over trading.

Barak Obama’s discussion of U.S trade with China, during his tour of East Asia, has been inundated with the same old platitudes about “resisting” protectionism and “encouraging” bilateral trade. Such is the consistency of the pleasantries emerging from the Washington and Beijing camps that one is almost beguiled into missing the hypocrisy behind this rhetoric. In reality over the last twelve months, the U.S. and China have implemented a series of tit for tat trade restrictions that have harmed trade between the countries- U.S. import tariffs on Chinese tyres, Chinese import taxes on nylon, U.S. import tariffs on steel and so on.

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