00:00Well, Douglas Barry is a former executive at the U.S.-China Business Council, the adjunct professor at George Washington University,
00:09and the author of a book about relations between the two countries.
00:14The plane load of CEOs that accompanied President Trump yesterday when he arrived in Beijing is testimony to the fact
00:22that there are a lot of people in the United States and in China who are interested in seeing this
00:27relationship succeed.
00:30And improve beyond what it's been the last few years.
00:34You're talking there about the business leaders that he brought with him.
00:38Now, President Trump said before he went into this visit that he was going to urge President Xi to open
00:45up China to American companies.
00:47How realistic do you think that is?
00:51Not very realistic.
00:52So, first of all, he has to define what it means to open up to U.S. businesses.
00:58All those people, the CEOs from Apple and from other companies, large international companies, already are doing business in China,
01:11have been doing it for some time.
01:13Certainly know the restrictions and know where it's difficult to do business, the market access part of it.
01:21But somehow have managed to make money anyway.
01:24On the other hand, there are other issues such as the limits on what the U.S. can do.
01:32The overwhelming focus now on national security.
01:37Does that mean does that extend to potato chips and other kinds of things that have little relevance to national
01:44security?
01:44And what sorts of opportunities will be there in the future?
01:49There's a couple of big hedge fund CEOs along on the trip.
01:54They've had long relationships with China.
01:58And in fact, they're kind of horse whisperers to Trump.
02:03In other words, they are telling him to back off from the hawkish view that he had and that some
02:12of his advisors have.
02:13And so one role that they're playing is to try to change the dynamic in the administration so that it
02:22is not so hostile to China.
02:24You were saying that many of the CEOs understand the difficulties here.
02:29What are those difficulties?
02:30One of the sticking points for Elon Musk, for example, is that even though he has a big investment in
02:38China that has paid, I think, very good dividends to him,
02:41the market share of Tesla has shrunk to less than 5 percent now.
02:47And that basically means that Chinese EVs have, in the last few years, exploded in terms of sales.
02:54And now they're also reaching other markets, not the United States, but Europe, certainly.
02:59And so it's been very difficult for Elon to hold on to his market share there.
03:04But there are other commodities and products.
03:08There are thousands of them that don't have that kind of dynamic and that China should be open to.
03:15So it is a very, it's a difficult, complicated situation.
03:20This idea of a board of trade that was floated by the U.S. side is interesting because it means
03:27then that there would be in place a formal mechanism
03:32through which U.S. government officials and private sector people could interact and hopefully create the kind of climate
03:40that would make it more conducive to more business deals of the sort that those CEOs and Donald Trump are
03:48there to facilitate.
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