SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
President Trump heads to China today for a summit with that country's president, Xi Jinping. The war with Iran and geopolitics are expected to dominate the conversation. But this is also a critical trade negotiation between leaders of the world's two biggest economies. NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now. Hi, Scott.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Hi, Sacha.
PFEIFFER: So, Scott, tell us how this relationship between China and U.S. has changed since President Trump returned to the White House.
HORSLEY: You know, it has waxed and waned, and it really highlights just how high the stakes are. A little over a year ago, remember, the U.S. was in a full-scale trade war with China. President Trump had imposed triple-digit tariffs on Chinese imports. China responded with import taxes of its own. That brought commerce between these two countries to a virtual halt. And both sides realized pretty quickly that was not sustainable, so they backed off those crippling tariffs. But since then, there have been some ups and downs, but the commerce has really basically stabilized.
You know, the Port of Los Angeles is a gateway for a lot of shipments from China and other parts of Asia. And the port's executive director, Gene Seroka, said this week the docks are busy right now moving merchandise to meet demand from U.S. shoppers.
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GENE SEROKA: When I was in Asia a few weeks ago, factories were operating at full capacity, moving spring and summer merchandise into the pipeline. That cargo is arriving now here in Los Angeles.
HORSLEY: But the port also offers an illustration of one of the president's complaints about that trade picture. For every four cargo containers that came into Los Angeles last month, almost three went back out empty.
PFEIFFER: Empty. And how does President Trump want to change that picture?
HORSLEY: Well, he wants to rebalance the trading relationship. And, you know, his policies have redrawn the trading map. The U.S. is buying less from China now than it was a couple years ago, but China is finding plenty of buyers elsewhere. Its overall exports continue to grow. And at the same time, the U.S. is selling less stuff to China. And in many cases, it has simply replaced those Chinese imports with imports from other countries like Vietnam. So the U.S. overall trade deficit hasn't really budged very much.
PFEIFFER: And as we have reported on extensively, the president's tariffs have faced legal challenges. Recap for us where things stand now on that front.
HORSLEY: Yeah, the president has lost a little bit of leverage here. In February, the Supreme Court struck down the emergency tariffs that Trump imposed on goods from China and most other countries last year. Trump tried to replace those emergency tariffs with a new set of levies, and then last week, those were also found to be illegal by a specialty trade court. So when the president sits down with President Xi, he's not going to have quite the tariff arsenal that he would have a few months ago.
That said, Trump does have other tariffs he could employ here, ones that he's used in the past to put pressure on China. One set, for example, is designed to address unfair trading practices. Another is designed to address national security threats. The administration probably has a better case to use those tariffs against China than it does against most of our other trading partners.
PFEIFFER: And, Scott, overall, big picture, what would you say it is that Trump wants from China?
HORSLEY: The White House says the president wants reciprocity and fairness. And to be sure, lots of countries around the world are concerned that China is distorting markets by producing too much and dumping the excess elsewhere. Trump also wants China to buy a lot more stuff from the United States. You know, China has made commitments to buy more in the past and then often fallen short of those promises. U.S. farmers, in particular, have paid a price when China started buying soybeans from Brazil, instead, for example.
President Trump is taking a bunch of U.S. business leaders with him on this trip. Some, like Apple's Tim Cook, view China partly as a workshop. Others, like Boeing's Kelly Ortberg or Cargill's Brian Sikes, see China primarily as a potential customer.
PFEIFFER: That's NPR's Scott Horsley. Scott, thank you.
HORSLEY: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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