China’s top trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He spoke to US Treasury Secretary Steven Munchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer over the phone and agreed to the October visit, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (who also comes as the special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer (R) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin co-chair the formal opening of a fresh round of high-level economic and trade talks at the Eisenhower Executive Office (File Photo: IANS)
China said on Thursday that its trade representatives will fly to Washington in early October to resume negotiations with the United States, raising the possibility that both sides might arrest a recent deterioration in the bilateral relationship that cast a shadow over the world economy.
China’s top trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He spoke to US Treasury Secretary Steven Munchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer over the phone and agreed to the October visit, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement.
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The statement further said that the “serious” mid-level discussions will begin in mid- September to prepare for the October visit.
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The announcement marks the first sign that talks are getting back on track after both governments raised tariffs last month and engaged in a rhetorical back-and-forth that underscored the adversarial mood settling over the two capitals on a range of issues extending well beyond trade.
This was the first contact between the two sides since the new Chinese and US tariffs on one another’s products came into effect on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Tokyo Stock Exchange jumped by more than 2 per cent during the first half of trading following the announcement of the talks.
The US-China trade war, triggered by President Trump’s aggressive protectionism since coming to power in Jan 2017, reached its peaked in May, with the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on Chinese imports worth $250 billion, almost half of the total.
Beijing responded with similar levies on $110 billion of US imports.
Trump aims is to balance trade between the two countries, which has been largely favourable to China.
However, his policy of imposing tariffs on Chinese imports has produced little or no effect so far.
Trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies have had an impact in many parts of the world. The International Monetary Fund, in its latest forecasts, lowered its global growth projections to 3.2 per cent this year, 0.1 less than in April.
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