Blackstone CEO Schwarzman says a China trade deal must include intellectual capital protection
Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of global asset management giant Blackstone, said on Tuesday that China must include intellectual capital protection in order to achieve a trade agreement with the United States.
“There’s a lot of different things they need to have. Enforcement mechanisms for any deal that makes sense,” he told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo from the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.
Schwarzman said Beijing needs to open up their financial services sector and has shown positive signs by allowing its auto industry to own more of their own businesses.
U.S. and China have been locked in a trade war since last year that has resulted in tit-for-tat tariffs, costing both countries billions of dollars. The Trump administration’s tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports and Beijing’s $110 billion tax on U.S. goods have rattled financial and commodity markets in the past year.
“The idea of leaving these large tariffs in place and having a contested relationship probably is unrealistic,” Schwarzman said on “Mornings with Maria.
President Trump is sending a high-level delegation to Beijing this week to further enhance trade talks. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is expected to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.
“We want to have a reciprocal trading relationship and if we can do that, that's a tremendous opportunity for U.S. workers, for U.S. companies, to sell into a large, growing, China middle-class,” Mnuchin told FOX Business on Monday.
Schwarzman said the key to a trade agreement is to establish a bilateral trade balance between the world’s two largest economies.
“Let’s just get equal,” he said. “I don’t want the U.S. to be superior. I don’t want you to be superior. We are all big mature countries and lets just be equal.”
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Schwarzman was among the early investors in China and created the Schwarzman Scholars, a program that helps build stronger links between China and a rapidly changing world.