Imbalances called key to Sino-US trade issues

Beijing and Washington need to address their own economic imbalances by strengthening from within to make them better able to address the issues that have come between them, a senior US economist said.

Stephen Roach, former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and the firm's chief economist and now senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, said that clashes between China and the United States are basically over "the strategies of their two very different economic models".

Only by strengthening from within will the two countries be better positioned to reinforce their respective growth paths rather than create frictions that pose serious impediments to economic growth, he said.