US proposing new round of trade talks with China in near future
Reports of the US outreach to China follow threats by US President Donald Trump over the past week to ratchet up the bilateral trade war with tariffs on all imports from the country
The US government has proposed a new round of high-level trade talks with Beijing aimed at halting further escalation in the bilateral trade war that started in July, according to The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently invited his Chinese counterpart Vice-Premier Liu He, President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser, for negotiations “in the coming weeks”, according to the Journal.
Reports of the US outreach to China follow threats by US President Donald Trump over the past week to ratchet up the bilateral trade war with tariffs on all imports from the country, moves he has not yet made. US share prices jumped following the reports.
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Citing sources familiar with the discussions, Bloomberg said the talks would likely be held in Washington while The Wall Street Journal said they could convene in either of the two country’s capitals.
Beijing has yet to formally accept the latest invitation, according to the reports, which come about three weeks after a recent effort by lower-level government officials to resume trade talks, failed to produce any breakthroughs.
Trump stepped up his threats on Friday, pledging to slap punitive tariffs on all Chinese imports on top of an original plan to impose tariffs on roughly half of all Chinese imports totalling US$200 billion within days.