"An agreement to sell [US] agricultural and energy commodities is the result of bad negotiating and bad economic strategy," CPA chairman Dan DiMicco said in the release on Monday. "China has agreed to buy commodities that it would buy anyway. The deal does nothing to reduce the US trade deficit, grow American jobs, or boost domestic manufacturing."
The tariffs the Trump administration agreed to put on hold, he added, are designed to address China’s technology theft and dominance of advanced high-tech manufacturing.
CPA CEO Michael Stumo said the focus for future negotiations must be to deny China the benefits of forced technology transfer that displace US value-added supply chains.
"The administration promised to fix the China problem. The framework deal reported this weekend only makes it worse," Stumo said. "America is becoming a natural resource and tourism exporter to China, putting us in the economic position of a third world colony."
Last week, media reported that China was prepared to offer a package that would reduce the trade deficit by $200 billion.
According to the US Department of Commerce, the US trade deficit with China stood at $375.2 billion in 2017.
Tensions between China and the United States have escalated in recent months as US President Donald Trump threatened to slap steep tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States including metals and high-tech products for allegedly stealing trade secrets. In response, Beijing vowed to retaliate against US exports to China with a matching value.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) is a nonprofit trade advocacy group representing workers, businesses and families in the agricultural, manufacturing sectors.