Despite the immense dislocations to trade caused by Trump's mercantilist war against China, a large number of U.S. firms seem keen on joining this year's China International Import Expo (CIIE) set for Nov. 5 to 10 at the Hongqiao International Economic and Trade Forum in Shanghai.
Proposed by President Xi Jinping, CIIE is a trade fair first held in 2018 in Shanghai. It is the world's first import-themed national-level expo and is aimed at boosting China's standing as a buyer of world goods, rather than a major exporter, a status fueling resentment in advanced nations.
What makes the interest of American firms in this year's expo ironic is that CIIE was organized with the purpose of replacing U.S. products with products from other countries. CIIE also intends to ultimately upgrade Chinese products with technologies imported from other countries.
More than 170 American companies participated in CIIE 2018, making the U.S. one of the top three countries represented.
Ren Hongbin, assistant minister of commerce and deputy director of the expo's organizing committee office, said more U.S. firms plan to participate in this year's CIIE compared to the number that did in 2018.
"According to what we know so far, the majority of agreements have already been completed," said Ren. "There are still some agreements and contracts in the process of being carried out because they are a one-year agreement."
CIIE 2018, the inaugural exhibition, saw the participation of more than 3,600 business firms from 172 countries. Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and regional governments accounted for most of the professional buyers at last year's expo. They are again expected to play a significant role this year.
A total of $57.83 billion in purchase agreements were signed. American companies were pleased with their participation.
"We have heard very positive feedback from U.S. companies who participated in (the import expo) last year," according to Jake Parker, vice president of China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council (USCBC) to CNBC.
"Significant numbers of purchases made at last (year's) event were fulfilled and fully executed," noted Parker. "These commercial opportunities led to an uptick in interest from USCBC members to participate in 2019."
U.S. companies participating in this event will be a pretty important demonstration of commitment to the Chinese market, said Nick Marro, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
U.S. participation also signals a strong interest among U.S. corporates in resuming a sense of normalcy, in other words, a return to the way things were before Trump's unwarranted trade war started wreaking havoc with world trade.
The U.S. and China are each groaning under punitive tariffs each has imposed on the other. The trade war was triggered in June 2018 by Trump in an effort to live-up to one of his campaign promises.
