Beijing: China’s Vice Premier and top trade negotiator Liu He will travel to the US on January 30-31 to hold crucial high-level talks as the world’s two largest economies are holding negotiations to resolve their bitter trade dispute ahead of a March 2 deadline.
Liu’s scheduled visit follows lower-level negotiations held in Beijing last week aimed at resolving the trade war that last year saw the two sides imposing tariffs on more than USD 300 billion in total two-way trade. China’s Commerce Ministry said on Thursday that Vice Premier Liu will travel to the US on January 30-31. He will hold talks with US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and review the recent official level talks on a host of issues to work out an agreement to end the trade war.
Both sides had expressed optimism after three-day talks held here in the second week this month. The two-day talks prolonged by a day raising hopes of a deal.
US President Donald Trump has been pressing China to bring down the USD 375 billion trade deficit in the bilateral trade, which he attributes to unfair trade practices by Beijing.
Officials say talks are expected to deliver specific commitments on Trump’s demand that China expand market access for the US in China, improve protection of intellectual property rights and reduce the trade surplus with the US, but it would take time to reform state-owned firms another major source of friction.
Trump, earlier said the trade talks with Beijing were going on “very well”. Both countries last year had slapped tit-for-tat additional tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of each other’s exports. The escalating trade war raised concerns in China as its economy was on the downward trend. (PTI)
