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• Bilateral trade: U.S. goods deficit with China declined in Q1 2019 to $80 billion, down 12.2 percent year-on-year; in 2018, U.S. services surplus in China grew less than 1 percent, as exports increased 2.2 percent and imports increased 5.5 percent.
• Bilateral policy issues: The United States won a WTO dispute against China for unfairly administering its tariff-rate quotas for wheat, corn, and rice; the EU is reported to have won a dispute brought by China over continuing to treat China as a nonmarket economy for the purposes of applying antidumping duties.
• Policy trends in China’s economy: Beijing attempted to recast the Belt and Road Initiative’s image in its second forum, following international pushback on debt-trap diplomacy and corruption; regulators released new rules for the highly anticipated high-tech board on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
• Quarterly review of China’s economy: China recorded GDP growth of 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2019 as key economic indicators rebounded from the end of 2018; policymakers leaned heavily on fiscal measures to shore up growth in place of monetary easing, creating concerns about the sustainability of local government debt growth and an expanding budget deficit.