US-China officials discuss trade as US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin eyes possible in-person talks
- Mnuchin, Robert Lighthizer and their Chinese counterparts spoke over the phone on Thursday, US Trade Representative’s office confirms
- Allowing US sales to Huawei is issue independent from trade negotiations, treasury secretary says
Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer spoke with their Chinese counterparts over the phone, Lighthizer’s office said on Thursday, following earlier comments by the Treasury secretary in an interview on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Chantilly, France.
The United States and China have been embroiled in a tit-for-tat tariff battle since July 2018, as Washington presses Beijing to address what it sees as decades of unfair and illegal trading practices.
China has countered that any deal needs to be fair and equitable, leaving the two sides apparently still far from an agreement to end the back-and-forth that has roiled global supply chains and upended financial markets.
“Right now we’re having principal-level calls and to the extent that it makes sense for us to set up in-person meetings, I would anticipate that we would be doing that,” Mnuchin said.