The US has urged China to help revive talks to update the 1996 agreement governing the $2tn annual global trade in IT products amid warnings that a weekend meeting of Pacific Rim trade ministers risks ending in embarrassing acrimony.
The call by Washington in the lead-up to the meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ministers in the Chinese city of Qingdao is part of the strategic manoeuvring between the US and China over what role Beijing ought to play in global trade negotiations.
The US, EU and others have framed the Information Technology Agreement negotiations as a test case for China as it seeks to join much larger US-led discussions to set new global rules for the $4.6tn annual trade in services.