00:00So we've had a big flow of news in the last hour or so.
00:03Xi Jinping is on the turf here in the United States for this state visit.
00:08We also heard from Scott Besson saying that they're going to extend the trade truce by another couple of months
00:13until January.
00:14What is that? I mean, it's probably not as much as the business communities from both countries wanted,
00:19but is it enough for now to get some of the difficulties resolved and smoothed out?
00:25Well, first of all, just the fact that we are having another summit, this time in D.C.,
00:32is significant following the first summit back in May in Beijing.
00:36So that certainly helps with stability between the two countries.
00:42As far as the extension, certainly we were watching that deadline of November the 10th.
00:48We were certainly hoping there will be a longer extension because we're looking for some stability,
00:54some predictability as far as exports, rare earth exports and tariffs.
01:00But having at least a short extension, I think it's better than no extension.
01:05At least this will take us through the end of the year.
01:08Then hopefully in the next few months, the two governments can continue to talk to each other
01:13and figure out a way to extend this more to the next year.
01:17Do you think that there was a lack of preparation maybe this time in the Trump administration,
01:22not to get too political, but maybe preoccupied more immediately with the midterms?
01:28But also since May, the war in Iran hasn't necessarily gone the way that they wanted to.
01:32So we talked about the B's and the T's, the deliverables from May.
01:37We haven't gotten a lot of them.
01:38The B's being Boeing jets.
01:39We haven't gotten details there.
01:42Soybeans and also some of the other agricultural products.
01:46And then the T's were the more sensitive ones, trade, tech and Taiwan.
01:52Do you think the host administration wasn't quite ready for this one?
01:58Well, certainly there are a lot of issues to be talked about in terms of deliverables for this summit.
02:05And we're following certainly the extension we just talked about, but certainly also the Board of Trade.
02:12Any outcomes from that discussions, because we already know both sides agree to this $30 billion versus $30 billion worth
02:21of products
02:22in non-sensitive categories that they will enjoy MFN-level tariffs, which will be a lot lower than the current
02:29level.
02:30This would be significant, and that's one of the other B's that I didn't mention, the boards of trade and
02:34boards of investment.
02:35Boards of investment can be much more difficult to get some non-sensitive areas where the Chinese can invest here
02:42in America and vice versa.
02:44But trade, do you think lowering those tariffs on the $30 billion of non-sensitive goods is critical?
02:49Very much so.
02:51So I think the two sides, when they met in Beijing back in May, there was one concrete outcome from
02:59that summit,
03:01namely $30 versus $30 billion worth of products in non-sensitive categories.
03:07So we're hopeful that this time the two sides can finalize these lists so that our companies can start enjoying
03:15much lower tariff levels.
03:17So that's one. As far as board of investment, I think we're still early.
03:22There are not enough, certainly, details.
03:25But certainly, you mentioned a few bees, certainly beans, soybeans, one of those.
03:33I think the two sides are talking about Chinese buying more U.S. agricultural products,
03:40and we're very hopeful that there will be some real deals signed this time.
03:44Yeah, beef was another one I didn't mention of the bees.
03:48But you just also had a doorknock here.
03:50That's parlance for essentially going and meeting with senior administration officials
03:55to kind of give a report on the business sentiment in China back to the United States.
04:02How receptive was the administration to what you had to say?
04:06Well, we represent about 1,000 U.S. companies, multinational companies with operations in China.
04:15And we do a survey every year, and this time we did in the month of June following the summit.
04:22So I think the business sentiment was improving.
04:25Our companies used to think that U.S.-China tensions was the number one challenge.
04:31But this year, in fact, it became a number two challenge, and the number one is domestic competition.
04:37So we brought those findings to Washington to share with policymakers, both with the administration
04:46and also on Capitol Hill.
04:49It's really to share with them what's happening on the ground.
04:53So we are very happy that the two governments are talking to each other.
04:58So we have some stability being built.
05:01But, you know, the market is still very, very competitive.
05:05We believe that we need to be there to improve our global competitiveness.
05:10So that's our view, is China is a very strategic market, and we source products there, and we also sell
05:18products to China.
05:19In addition, we also sell products to other markets.
05:22So instead of just in China for China, we're in China for the world.
05:27What's the mood by your members right now, would you say?
05:30And having the tariffs reduced in non-sensitive areas, you mentioned to me biotech is one area that you're quite
05:37encouraged by.
05:38But overall, what's the mood of Americans trying to do business in China?
05:41Our business sentiment has improved quite a bit.
05:45To give you one data point, we always ask this question, what's your business outlook in the next five years?
05:51Those who are optimistic now this time amounted to 58 percent compared with last year, which was 41 percent.
06:02It was quite an improvement.
06:04I think there are two drivers behind that.
06:06One was the improvement of the bilateral relationship.
06:10At least the two governments are talking to each other.
06:12The other one is our operating results are improving too.
06:17Our bottom line has improved quite a bit to 78 percent of our companies saw a profit last year.
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