Chamber China Expert Sees Export Controls as Next Phase in Trade Fight

A change in approach that goes beyond the tariffs that have inspired Chinese tariffs in return is coming, said Jeremie Waterman, president of the China Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We're now entering into the next phase on export controls; that will be a major issue for the business community, in terms of being able to bring your IP and create value in China." With regard to rolling back the tariffs, he said there's no process for negotiations now, and CEOs are starting to try to figure out if this is going to last long enough that they need to make changes to where they manufacture, including leaving the U.S. because of Chinese retaliatory tariffs. "The supply chain conversations at the C suite level are very hot and heavy right now," he said.

There were years of complaints from the U.S. that China was not living up to its promises to open certain sectors of its economy or change government policies of industry support. He said during these many years of dialogues, China would say to U.S. officials, essentially, "you're making money, you should be happy."

"All the lists that are exchanged in these dialogues are in no way binding," Waterman said. "China has become accustomed to a lack of pushback," and now that it's getting pushback from America, it is saying that the U.S. doesn't want China to develop and advance.