WASHINGTON: White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Friday the United States wants “near term” results from US-China trade talks in September and October but cautioned that the trade conflict could take years to resolve.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Kudlow said that although the United States and China have been negotiating on trade and intellectual property issues for 18 months, that was a short period of time in terms of what was at stake and negotiations could go on much longer.
“A deal of this size and scope and central global importance, I don’t think 18 months is a very long time,” Kudlow said.
“The stakes are so high, we have to get it right, and if that takes a decade, so be it,” Kudlow added, drawing parallels to US Cold War competition against the Soviet Union.
But in confirming talks between high-level US and Chinese officials in early October, Kudlow declined to predict outcomes or a specific timeline for reaching any agreements.
The plans for the first in-person US-China trade meetings since late July were set during a phone call on Thursday between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Trade deputies are due to meet in mid-September.
The 14-month US-China trade war has escalated sharply since May, when talks broke down after Beijing backtracked on earlier commitments to make changes in law to improve intellectual property protections, curb the forced transfer of US technology to Chinese firms and improve US access to Chinese markets.
Since then, US President Donald Trump has sharply increased existing tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and imposed or scheduled new tariffs on virtually all remaining imports from China to increase his negotiating leverage.
Kudlow told Bloomberg TV that he could not speculate on whether the September or October talks could delay a planned tariff increase on Oct. 1 to 30% from 25% on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods.
“We would like to go back to where we were last May, but I don’t know if that’s possible, and I don’t want to predict any outcomes. This is a difficult matter,” told reporters at the White House.
He also said that it was important that Chinese reforms be reflected in changes to its laws and that any deal must have enforcement provisions to ensure that China lives up to its commitments.
He said on Fox Business Network that the September and October talks would cover all of the core issues in the dispute.
“Everything will be on the table. You can rest assured, for example, the absolute key structural issues — the IP theft, the forced transfer of technology, the cyberspace, the clouds, financial services, all of that will be on the table — agriculture purchases, industrial purchases, energy purchases, getting tariff and non-tariff barriers down,” Kudlow said.
While there were no precondition talks, Kudlow told Bloomberg TV that the Trump administration wants “to see results in the near term.”
“When we don’t see results, we take additional actions,” Kudlow said. “On the other hand, if we do see results from these upcoming meetings, then progress will be made.”
Trump said on Twitter that China was hurting economically from the US tariffs but that the new round of talks were positive.
“’China is eating the Tariffs,’” Trump tweeted. “Billions pouring into USA. Targeted Patriot Farmers getting massive Dollars from the incoming Tariffs! Good Jobs Numbers, No Inflation(Fed). China having worst year in decades. Talks happening, good for all!”
US-China trade conflict could take years to resolve — Kudlow
US-China trade conflict could take years to resolve — Kudlow
- A deal of this size and scope and central global importance, I don’t think 18 months is a very long time, says Kudlow
- “We would like to go back to where we were last May, but I don’t know if that’s possible,” says the WH economic adviser
AI will never replace human creativity, says SRMG CEO
- Speaking to Maya Hojeij, senior business anchor at Asharq with Bloomberg, Jomana R. Alrashid expressed pride in SRMG platforms that had absorbed and adopted AI
RIYADH: Jomana R. Alrashid, CEO of Saudi Research and Media Group, highlighted how AI cannot replace human creativity during a session at The Family Office’s “Investing Is a Sea” summit at Shura Island on Friday.
“You can never replace human creativity. Journalism at the end of the day, and content creation, is all about storytelling, and that’s a creative role that AI does not have the power to do just yet,” Alrashid told the investment summit.
“We will never eliminate that human role which comes in to actually tell that story, do the actual investigative reporting around it, make sure to be able to also tell you what’s news or what’s factual from what’s wrong ... what’s a misinformation from bias, and that’s the bigger role that the editorial player does in the newsroom.”
Speaking on the topic of AI, moderated by Maya Hojeij, senior business anchor at Asharq with Bloomberg, the CEO expressed her pride in SRMG platforms that had absorbed and adopted AI in a way that was “transformative.”
“We are now translating all of our content leveraging AI. We are also now being able to create documentaries leveraging AI. We now have AI-facilitated fact-checking, AI facilities clipping, transcribing. This is what we believe is the future.”
Alrashid was asked what the journalist of the future would look like. “He’s a journalist and an engineer. He’s someone who needs to understand data. And I think this is another topic that is extremely important, understanding the data that you’re working with,” she said.
“This is something that AI has facilitated as well. I must say that over the past 20 years in the region, especially when it comes to media companies, we did not understand the importance of data.”
The CEO highlighted that previously, media would rely on polling, surveys or viewership numbers, but now more detailed information about what viewers wanted was available.
During the fireside session, Alrashid was asked how the international community viewed the Middle Eastern media. Alrashid said that over the past decades it had played a critical role in informing wider audiences about issues that were extremely complex — politically, culturally and economically — and continued to play that role.
“Right now it has a bigger role to play, given the role again of social media, citizen journalists, content creators. But I also do believe that it has been facilitated by the power that AI has. Now immediately, you can ensure that that kind of content that is being created by credible, tier-A journalists, world-class journalists, can travel beyond its borders, can travel instantly to target different geographies, different people, different countries, in different languages, in different formats.”
She said that there was a big opportunity for Arab media not to be limited to simply Arab consumption, but to finally transcend borders and be available in different languages and to cater to their audiences.
The CEO expressed optimism about the future, emphasizing the importance of having a clear vision, a strong strategy, and full team alignment.
Traditional advertising models, once centered on television and print, were rapidly changing, with social media platforms now dominating advertising revenue.
“It’s drastically changing. Ultimately in the past, we used to compete with one another over viewership. But now we’re also competing with the likes of social media platforms; 80 percent of the advertising revenue in the Middle East goes to the social media platforms, but that means that there’s 80 percent interest opportunities.”
She said that the challenge was to create the right content on these platforms that engaged the target audiences and enabled commercial partnerships. “I don’t think this is a secret, but brands do not like to advertise with news channels. Ultimately, it’s always related with either conflict or war, which is a deterrent to advertisers.
“And that’s why we’ve entered new verticals such as sports. And that’s why we also double down on our lifestyle vertical. Ultimately, we have the largest market share when it comes to lifestyle ... And we’ve launched new platforms such as Billboard Arabia that gives us an entry into music.”
Alrashid said this was why the group was in a strong position to counter the decline in advertising revenues across different platforms, and by introducing new products.
“Another very important IP that we’ve created is events attached to the brands that have been operating in the region for 30-plus years. Any IP or any title right now that doesn’t have an event attached to it is missing out on a very big commercial opportunity that allows us to sit in a room, exchange ideas, talk to one another, get to know one another behind the screen.”
The CEO said that disruption was now constant and often self-driving, adding that the future of the industry was often in storytelling and the ability to innovate by creating persuasive content that connected directly with the audience.
“But the next disruption is going to continue to come from AI. And how quickly this tool and this very powerful technology evolves. And whether we are in a position to cope with it, adapt to it, and absorb it fully or not.”
