U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on June 6 emphasized the importance of the U.S.-China economic relationship, and said that he likes where it is heading.
"I couldn't be more pleased with the direction of where we are heading," Mnuchin said in his keynote address at the annual meeting of the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC) in Washington.
One major accomplishment Mnuchin brought up was the newly established Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, an important outcome of the meeting between the two countries' leaders at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
"I think that we made very good progress. The first issue is clearly we agreed on establishing the dialogue and making it action-oriented," Mnuchin said. "We moved ahead with the 100-day plan. We have already agreed on very significant steps, probably the most notable is opening of their market for beef."
According to the first results of the action plan released by both sides in May, in addition to U.S. beef imports, China also agreed to allow wholly foreign-funded financial services to provide credit ratings in China, while the United States is to import cooked poultry from China.
The moves won applause from American businesses. USCBC President John Frisbie said that he is pleased with these initial outcomes to better balance the two countries' commercial relationship.
Mnuchin also spoke highly of two sides' cooperation on financing anti-terrorism intelligence and the two leaders' discussions of the North Korea nuclear issue.
Speaking about the prospect of a bilateral investment agreement, Mnuchin emphasized that the Trump administration's approach to China prioritizes specific issues: "I think what we're looking for is, opposed to just negotiating a large agreement, we're looking to negotiate very specific issues that deal with market issues today," he stated.
