10 April 1991
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A Heath Esq
First Secretary Commercial
British Embassy Washington
FINAL VERSION
28
US/CHINA TRADE AND MFN
Many
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anything you want to add / amend on the reAN point
a) back to me ANS
20
1. Thank you for copying to us your letter of 12 March to Ms Clark, DTI. I found this a most interesting and useful survey of US/China trade relations and the prospects for MFN renewal.
খছে
2. You will have seen (Peking telnos 478 and 479) that both Premier Li Peng and Foreign Minister Qian Qichen raised the issue of MFN renewal, and UK support for China's case, during the Secretary of State's visit to Peking. This is a clear indication of the seriousness with which the Chinese approach this issue. I was interested in your assessment that there has been a worsening in both the political and trade atmosphere surrounding this question. It may be that with the memory raut trials of dissidents now receding, immediate attention on
human rights problems will fade. Nonetheless as your letter points out, there is an impressive catalogue of trade related disputes between the US and China which will spill over into the MFN debate. In this connection it is have
to reconcile I was interested to see Prime Minister Li Peng's
assertion that China ran a trade deficit with the US how to reconcile this with the view from the American side that China is now its third largest bilateral deficit, is now unelear. There is a similar discrepancy in our own trade figures viz à vis China, both we and the Chinese claim we are in deficit. But the difference between the two positions, which can be at least partly explained by different accounting methods, is far smaller.
3. We look forward to further reports on this subjeetr
of the
AS4AEU
A J Seaton
Far Eastern Department
есно fumess екі
Ms J. Clarke joi
072
Commercial Dept., Pekering
Biz Hong Kong
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