Beyond the trade war fire and fury, Chinese and US officials look for chance to reopen talks
- While Donald Trump and Chinese officials send out mixed messages, observers suggest they are exploring ways to get negotiations back on track
- Sources familiar with the talks warn progress is likely to be slow and lift the lid on how a near-agreement melted away back in February
Even as China and the US ratchet up the rhetoric against one other, their senior officials are quietly looking for opportunities to restart talks and end the months-long trade war, sources familiar with the stalled talks say.
But the sources caution that progress is likely to be slow, noting that the situation today is very different from February when the Chinese seemed confident of signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) before an unexpected intervention by US President Donald Trump.
The sources also highlighted some of the significant areas of disagreement in the talks, and said the Chinese side had been annoyed by leaks to the US media of sensitive information about the stalled negotiations.
On Thursday, Trump said “a lot of interesting things are happening in our talks with China”, before going on to threaten that he could “raise tariffs on China by another US$300 billion, if necessary”.
Hours later, Chinese central bank governor Yi Gang sent similarly mixed signals, telling Bloomberg that China had “tremendous room” to adjust monetary policy for a prolonged trade war with Washington.
However, he also predicted “productive talks” with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin this weekend on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of finance ministers in Japan.