China confirms ‘proactive and constructive’ US trade talks in Beijing next week
- Deputy trade representative Jeffrey Gerrish will lead the vice-ministerial level American delegation for ‘proactive and constructive talks’ on January 7-8
China on Friday confirmed that a vice-ministerial level delegation from the United States will visit Beijing next week for “proactive and constructive talks” to flesh out trade agreements reached between President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Donald Trump in Argentina last month.
The talks on January 7-8 will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two the countries over trade since Xi and Trump agreed a 90-day truce in Buenos Aires on December 1.
Deputy US trade representative Jeffrey Gerrish will lead the American delegation, China’s Ministry of Commerce said, without revealing the leader of the Chinese delegation.
The US delegation “will conduct proactive and constructive talks with the Chinese working group over how to implement important consensus reached by the two state leaders in Argentina”, the commerce ministry said in a statement.
The visit was only finalised after a “vice-ministerial level” phone call on Friday morning, highlighting Beijing’s eagerness to confirm the meeting, with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) yet to confirm the visit.
China's benchmark stock indices in Shanghai and Shenzhen gained over 1 per cent on Friday morning after confirmation of the trade talks, erasing early morning losses.