On "Forbes Newsroom," author and U.S.-China relations expert Gordon Chang spoke about what a new trade agreement could look like between the U.S. and China.
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00:00Because you're saying trade rules are out the window. What is your ideal thing coming? If you see President Trump and Xi Jinping talk, what would you want to see a new trade agreement come out of there? What would that look like? And how close do you think that is to realistically what is going to happen?
00:18I think that the only trade deal that can be enforced is one where China makes the purchase commitments. In other words, a phase two trade deal. But it's one that's got to have stronger enforcement mechanisms because the phase one deal failed.
00:35And so, you know, I can't see that any agreement that contemplated a fundamental restructuring of the Chinese economy is going to work. You know, we heard the Treasury Secretary today at his Institute of International Finance speech talk about the rebalancing of the Chinese economy and everybody knows that it has to be done.
00:54Well, that's true, except there is one person who doesn't believe it has to occur. And that one person has a very big vote. And that one person is Xi Jinping.
01:06So, yes, I know that all the officials that we talk to in China understand what we say about rebalancing, about the need for consumption and all the rest of it.
01:16But that doesn't really matter because there's that one guy who just is not going to accept what everybody else is saying.