China, US Hold Talks to End Trade War; to Meet Again in September

The US delegation arrived in China on Tuesday for a working dinner, with official discussions taking place the next day, and wrapping up early in the afternoon.

The US and China will resume trade negotiations in Washington in September after the two countries discussed increasing Chinese purchases of US agricultural products in the latest talks in Shanghai, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

The two sides conducted “frank, efficient and constructive in-depth exchanges” on major economic and trade issues, and they discussed that China will increase its purchase of American farm goods and the US will create “favourable conditions” for it, Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

It added that the next round of “high-level” talks will convene in the US in September.

The US delegation arrived in China on Tuesday for a working dinner, with official discussions taking place the next day, and wrapping up early in the afternoon.

While the talks between US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He were closely watched, they were seen as largely symbolic by Chinese diplomatic observers and advisers, reported the South China Morning Post.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a truce in June at the G20 summit after the trade talks collapsed in May that prompted a steep US tariff hike on $200 billion of Chinese goods.

The Trump administration had also blacklisted Huawei, forcing US companies to cut ties with it. China later said a deal will not be reached unless the existing tariffs are stripped.

Before Wednesday’s talks wrapped up, the US President took to Twitter to complain at length that China had not been “coming through” in terms of buying American farm products or in making progress on a deal to end the year-long trade war.

“China is doing very badly, worst year in 27 – was supposed to start buying our agricultural product now – no signs that they are doing so. That is the problem with China, they just don’t come through,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

He alleged that China may be awaiting the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

“They should probably wait out our election to see if we get one of the Democrat stiffs like Sleepy Joe…The problem with them waiting, however, is that if and when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now…or no deal at all,” Trump said.