Update | No breakthrough but some consensus in China-US trade talks, Beijing says
Beijing and Washington agree only to keep talking after two days of dialogue
China and the United States wrapped up their first round of trade talks on Friday with no breakthrough, agreeing only to have more dialogue to ease tensions.
A short statement released by state-run Xinhua said both sides were still “very divided” on some issues and “more work needed to be done”.
The two sides “reached some consensus” and exchanged views on expanding US exports to China, bilateral investment, intellectual property protection and the imposition of tariffs, the statement said, without elaborating.
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A Chinese government official who was briefed on the trade talks said they did not go as well as described by official news agency Xinhua, which called them “candid, efficient and constructive”.
“Candid means there was a heated exchange. Efficient means the talks were very short. And constructive means there’s still a huge gulf between the two sides,” said the government source, who declined to be named.
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The US delegation led by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was expected to meet President Xi Jinping and Vice-President Wang Qishan during the two-day visit, but there was no mention of this in Chinese state media reports on the talks.