Washington DC, July 4: Senior level representatives of China and the United States are expected to resume their trade talks next week in efforts to resolve a trade war between the world’s two largest economies, according to US administration officials.
In a media briefing, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow told reporters, “Those talks will continue in earnest this coming week.”
A US trade representative office’s official stated the two sides currently processing to schedule a top-level telephonic call with the officials from China for the next week, according to Reuters news reports.
A team of US trade delegation will be headed by treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and special trade representative Robert Lighthizer, while the Chinese delegation will be led by vice premier Liu He.
Kudlow was not clear about a timeline for resuming direct talks, stating the negotiations would kick off “soon” and an announcement would be declared.
“I don’t know precisely when. They’re on the phone. They’re going to be on the phone this coming week and they’ll be scheduling face-to-face meetings,” he said.
At the regular media briefing on Thursday, Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson Gao Feng told reporters Beijing welcomed Washington’s decision not to impose more tariffs on Chinese goods worth $300 billion and to deescalate restrictions levied on China’s telecommunication giant Huawei Pvt Ltd. The US has imposed 25 percent tariffs over $250 billion worth Chinese goods.
“The U.S. move to unilaterally increase tariffs on Chinese imports started the Sino-U.S. economic and trade frictions. If both sides could reach a deal, those tariffs must be completely removed,” said Gao.
“We’ve been accommodative. We will not lift tariffs during the talks,” Kudlow said. “We are hoping that China will toe its end of it by purchasing a good many of American imports.”
Gao stated Beijing hoped Washington would attempt to follow on President Donald Trump’s promise to make sanction relief on Huawei