USTR: Trade data not the best way to track China’s phase-one compliance

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer this week blasted an oft-cited tracker of Chinese purchases of U.S. goods in defending the administration’s phase-one deal with China, claiming it employs a “childish” and “failed methodology” to assess whether Beijing is meeting its purchasing requirements. The Peterson Institute for International Economics tracker of Chinese purchases of U.S. goods, created by senior fellow and Obama administration economist Chad Bown, compiles 2020 export data from the U.S. Census Bureau and 2020 import data from China’s...