LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In its first quarter report for 2019, the Cathay Bank/UCLA Anderson Forecast U.S.-China Economic Report notes that trade negotiations between the U.S. and China are making progress, which may mean that an agreement between the two countries is under way. While the possibility of a resolution is encouraging, it does not diminish or eliminate potential tensions or disputes that may arise between the two largest economies in the world.

As mentioned in previous reports, “The world is in a new era of strategic competition between the U.S. and China, particularly in the fields of science and technology,” says William Yu, UCLA Anderson Forecast economist. That tension was evident when a U.S. Senate panel discovered that work that Google may have done in China directly benefitted the country’s military. Google’s response:  it said it had dropped some ideas it had been pursing with the Chinese government. “We expect more of this state scrutiny and regulation with respect to technologically sophisticated products and services in the future,” says Yu.

Amid ongoing discussions, all of the U.S. trading partners have had an increase in U.S. exports, with the exception of China and Hong Kong. The latter is attributable to China’s retaliation against the U.S. tariffs and to the slowing growth of China’s economy. 

The potential new trade agreement could well usher in a two-tiered trading relationship between the U.S and China. One tier would include some consumer goods, services, some investment, and tourism, which would resume in a relatively free trade environment. The other tier of goods and services, involving advanced technology, information, communication, and national security, would be governed by strategic competition parameters rather than free trade.

For a full report of the Cathay Bank/UCLA Anderson Forecast, click here: (https://bit.ly/2GmYKlD).

About UCLA Anderson Forecast

UCLA Anderson Forecast is one of the most widely watched and often-cited economic outlooks for California and the nation, and was unique in predicting both the seriousness of the early-1990s downturn in California and the strength of the state’s rebound since 1993. More recently, the Forecast was credited as the first major U.S. economic forecasting group to declare the recession of 2001. Visit UCLA Anderson Forecast at uclaforecast.com.

About Cathay Bank

Cathay Bank, a subsidiary of Cathay General Bancorp (Nasdaq: CATY), offers a wide range of financial services through nine states in the U.S. as well as a branch in Hong Kong and representative offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei. Founded in 1962 to support Los Angeles’ growing Chinese American community, in the past half century the bank has expanded and grown with its customers, providing them with the tools and services they need to achieve their goals. Learn more at cathaybank.com. FDIC insurance coverage is limited to deposit accounts at Cathay Bank’s U.S. domestic branch locations.

Contact:
Elise Anderson
UCLA Anderson School of Management
elise.anderson@anderson.ucla.edu
(310) 206-7537