U.S.-China trade deal

“Even if not for the reasons initially expected, history is likely to judge the Phase One agreement as having played a fairly important role in U.S.-China trade relations over 2020-21.”

Enforcing the deal could ironically prove to be its undoing. What options does Washington have?

Katherine Tai's speech at CSIS was the first major policy address on the China-U.S. economic relationship, but it remained frustratingly short on details.

Talks are a necessary but not sufficient step for repairing the China-U.S. relationship.

Four years and a new president later, U.S. tariffs on Chinese products remain.

China’s struggle with IP protection is based on structural issues related to its “fragmented authoritarianism.”

Despite the “Phase One” deal, U.S.-China total trade is slipping in importance. That’s a warning sign for the bilateral relationship as a whole.

China’s recent improvements in IP protection can’t overcome the fact that its legal system will never offer a level playing field.

China is well aware of the political implications of how it handles agricultural imports from the U.S. – in this case, soybeans.

Both the U.S. and China expressed satisfaction with the talks and the implementation of the deal thus far.

Looking at the text, China's commitments far outweigh the United States'. So why did Beijing sign on?