Where are China-US trade relations headed?

Trade relations between China and the US have remained stable overall in the past year.

According to data published by the US Department of Agriculture, China has already imported 340,000 tonnes of soybeans from the US, and trade in consumer and essential goods has also remained at a steady level.

The two sides are meanwhile in close communication.

In September, China and the US held consultations on a framework for reciprocal tariff reductions that would potentially cover $30 billion worth of products from each side.

What grounds stable bilateral trade relations amid a shifting international trade environment, and where are trade relations between the two countries headed? CGTN interviewed Wang Honggang, director of the Institute of Peaceful Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Zhang Tengjun, associate research fellow at the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; and Sun Taiyi, associate professor of political science at Christopher Newport University in the United States.

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CGTN: Traditional manufacturing, agriculture and essential goods have long formed the foundation of China-US economic and trade cooperation.

Beyond that, green economy, digital trade, new energy and cooperation among small and medium-sized enterprises are also seen as emerging areas with growth potential.

How much room for growth do you think these new areas can create for China-US economic and trade cooperation? Wang Honggang: Purchases of agricultural products, Boeing aircraft and fossil energy are tied to the current US administration's domestic electoral politics and have been repeatedly raised by the administration as requests to China.

These are areas where the US side is likely to continue to raise requests and demands to China.

They also constitute a practical foundation for stability and cooperation between China and the United States.

At the same time, the two sides have strong complementarities in the emerging fields you mentioned.

If China and the United States can step up cooperation in these areas, it could potentially open a new "golden era" for bilateral economic and trade cooperation and help alleviate a number of domestic challenges in the United States, such as power shortages and high inflation.

The current obstacle is the US tendency to view issues through an overly broad national security lens.