China has not shut door on further trade talks

China has always attached great importance to the trade consultations with the United States, hoping that by engaging in them with sincerity, a final agreement could be reached on the basis of reciprocal respect and equal treatment.

However, it is reasonable to question whether that is also true of the US after it chose to escalate the trade frictions rather than conclude a deal that was, by its own earlier admissions, gradually being hammered into shape after 10 previous rounds of talks.

Washington has tried to pin the blame on Beijing, of course, accusing it of this and that. But it is hard to escape the conclusion that by hiking the tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and setting in motion the threat to begin imposing tariffs on all remaining imports from China, the US administration is simply indulging its reluctance to be party to a deal in which it is not the clear-cut winner.