Washington DC, June 26: The United States was hoping to re-launch its trade talks with China after President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump will hold a meeting on Saturday in Japan on the sidelines of the G20 summit but said the nation will not agree on any conditions over tariffs, according to a senior administration official.
According to Reuters news reports, the official said both the sides could agree over common ground and not to impose further tariffs as a goodwill gesture in order to get negotiations resumed, but it was not clear whether that would happen.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official said Washington was unwilling to hold a meeting with Xi with any concessions.
Xi and Trump are expected to meet and hold a discussion on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on Friday and Saturday – the first face-to-face contact for both the leaders since the stalled trade talks in May.
Senior trade officials from both China and the United States has held a telephonic conversation on Monday ahead of scheduled dialogues between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping later this week, as the globe’s two largest economies stuck in an intense trade spat.
Liu He, the Chinese vice premier, has held telephonic conservation with Robert Lightizer, the US trade representative, and US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, according to an official statement issued by the Chinese ministry of commerce posted on Tuesday morning to its official website.
On Monday, a senior American official stated the US president views the coming meeting with the Chinese leader as a change to pave ways to trade agreements and where Beijing stands right now on the both nations’ trade spat, and “comfortable with any outcome”.