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United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer stated on Friday that attempting to reshape China’s economic governance is “crazy,” emphasizing that Washington’s current objective is bilateral trade rebalance rather than structural reform, according to reporting by Axios and the South China Morning Post. The remarks came during an interview with Fox News just days ahead of a closely watched presidential trip to Beijing.
Shifting Focus from Structural Reform to Trade Balance
The U.S. administration is abandoning efforts to alter Beijing’s state-managed economic system, according to comments made by Greer on Friday. The trade chief told Fox News that trying to force changes to how China governs its economy is unrealistic because those practices are deeply embedded in the nation’s system. Instead, Washington aims to establish a pragmatic framework focused strictly on bottom-line trade outcomes.
“Our goal going forward is to have stability,” Greer said, as reported by the South China Morning Post. He added that while the world’s two largest economies maintain a robust trading relationship, it remains “wildly unbalanced” due to massive Chinese export volumes coupled with significant barriers blocking U.S. goods and imports.
Optimizing Bilateral Commerce Ahead of Presidential Summit
President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. According to the South China Morning Post, the agenda for the high-level meetings encompasses bilateral ties, the ongoing conflict involving Iran, and Taiwan. Greer emphasized that future discussions will center on trade optimization, including concrete questions about shipping volumes and specific categories of goods exchanged between the two nations.
“We think we can have a conversation with China about bottom line outcomes, how much can we be shipping to them, how much should they ship to us, [and] what kind of goods should those be,” Greer stated in his Fox News interview, as cited by the South China Morning Post.
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