US-China trade rifts resurface

FILE - In this Saturday, July 8, 2017, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrive for a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. After a cordial meeting between Trump and Xi in April 2017, tensions are simmering again between the world’s two biggest economies. As U.S. and Chinese economic officials prepare to meet Wednesday, July 19, in Washington, the U.S. is weighing whether to slap tariffs on steel imports and risk setting off a trade war, a dicey option to deal with a problem caused largely by China’s massive overproduction of steel. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, July 8, 2017, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrive for a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. After a cordial meeting between Trump and Xi in April 2017, tensions are simmering again between the world’s two biggest economies. As U.S. and Chinese economic officials prepare to meet Wednesday, July 19, in Washington, the U.S. is weighing whether to slap tariffs on steel imports and risk setting off a trade war, a dicey option to deal with a problem caused largely by China’s massive overproduction of steel. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Cake and conversation, it seems, can go only so far to mend longstanding economic rifts between the United States and China.

Three months after President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, shared chocolate cake at an amiable summit in Florida, tensions between the world's two biggest economies are flaring again.

As officials of the two sides began meeting Wednesday, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said the two countries depend on each other economically and warned "confrontation will immediately damage the interests of both."

Obstacles to cooperation loom. The Trump administration is considering slapping tariffs on steel imports, a step that risks igniting a trade war. For the United States, it's a perilous option to address a problem caused largely by China's overproduction of steel.

And Trump is criticizing China again for failing to use its economic leverage to rein in its neighbor and ally, the nuclear rogue state North Korea.

Could this week's U.S.-China Comprehensive Dialogue produce a meaningful breakthrough in economic relations?

Most China watchers are skeptical.

"I'm not looking for anything worthwhile," said Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

For one thing, the points of difference between the two countries run deep. For another, Xi faces political pressures at home and won't want to cause a stir in Beijing.

Both countries canceled scheduled news conferences Wednesday without saying why.

For all the tensions between the two nations, Trump's words about Xi himself have remained warm. He has suggested the personal bond he formed with Xi when the two met April 6-7 at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort can overcome fundamental differences on trade and national security. Last week, the president called his Chinese counterpart a "friend of mine," "a terrific guy" and "a very special person."

At a White House event Monday, Trump suggested the relationship is so strong he asked during the Florida summit to start exporting U.S. beef to China, and the request was quickly granted. Trump said the beef industry was so pleased to return to China after a 14-year ban one executive from Nebraska "hugged me, he wanted to kiss me so badly."

"We welcome this opportunity," Kenny Graner, a North Dakota cattle farmer who is president of the U.S. Cattlemen's Association, said of the China market. "They have a middle class that's growing in income. It's big, a lot of people."

After the meeting, the president softened his accusations of abusive Chinese practices, dropped his threat to label China a currency manipulator and expressed optimism China would pressure North Korea to scale back its nuclear program.