Exclusive | China and US negotiating teams scramble to make a plan for Xi Jinping and Donald Trump’s G20 Osaka summit
- China, US trade teams may meet in Osaka as early as Tuesday, sources say, while top negotiators are set to speak on the phone ahead of the trip
- Negotiators have not spoken since the talks collapsed in early May but a call between Xi and Trump confirmed the meeting in Japan
US and Chinese trade negotiators are scrambling to put a plan together, as they look to ease trade tensions ahead of President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump’s meeting in Osaka, Japan, next week.
The trade negotiators have not talked in the six weeks since the talks collapsed in early May. However, a phone conversation between Xi and Trump on Tuesday, during which the two confirmed their meeting in Osaka, has rekindled the process.
Lighthizer said on Wednesday that he would have a phone conversation with his Chinese counterparts “in the next day and a half”, then fly to Osaka with Mnuchin to meet the Chinese delegation before the Trump-Xi summit. He did not elaborate on the timing of the call or the meeting.
Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said at a news conference in Beijing on Thursday that in their talk the lead negotiators on both sides would follow up on the decisions made by Xi and Trump, but he did not provide further details.