The Washington International Trade Association held a conference today entitled, Phase 2: The Art of the Deal with China. Experts included former USTR officials, the former head of the U.S.-China Business Council, a former Obama Administration trade official, and the illustrious Asia expert Wendy Cutler. There were many notable insights by these experts, and something notably absent. First, the insights:

There is a fundamentally imbalanced trade relationship between the U.S. and China.  The root cause of the trade problem is China’s over-reliance on exports versus domestic consumption. China’s domestic market is multiples larger than the value of its exports to the U.S. It could economically eliminate the adverse impact of...