Inside the US delegation for China trade war talks: Washington’s big guns will be absent
- US side will not have Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and top trade adviser Peter Navarro
- The relatively low-ranking delegation may indicate that this meeting is about laying groundwork for future high-level talks
The US delegation that will head to Beijing on Monday for the next round of trade war negotiations will lack some of the high-ranking officials who took part in previous high-stakes meetings, the United States Trade Representative's Office confirmed on Friday.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and US President Donald Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, will all be absent from the delegation, led by deputy US Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish.
It is the first time officials from both sides have met for such discussions since the US and China called a truce in their trade war last December.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that talks between Washington and Beijing aimed at resolving a bitter trade dispute were going “very well.”
“We are doing very well in our negotiation with China,” Trump told reporters at the White House after a meeting with congressional leaders on the partial government shutdown.
A relatively low-ranking delegation signals that the visit is about laying groundwork for later, more high-level talks, rather than making substantive progress in negotiations, said Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics.
“I think the lower level of the US group also suggests that we are not likely to get much visibility on any progress next week,” Lardy said.