US, China to hold trade talks 'in the coming days': Chinese commerce ministry
The United States and China will hold trade talks “in the coming days” during which the officials from the two countries will assess the progress made so far in the bilateral negotiations, China’s commerce ministry said Thursday.
The world’s two largest economies have agreed to evaluate what was achieved in their Phase 1 trade deal at the six-month mark after it was reached in January, Ministry spokesman Gao Feng noted at a weekly briefing held online, without elaborating.
This comes a day after White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said no new high-level trade talks had been scheduled between the US and China.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Wednesday, Meadows said US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer remained in touch with his counterparts in China about fulfilling its commitments.
"Ambassador Lighthizer continues to have discussions with his Chinese counterparts involving purchases and fulfilling their agreements," he said.
During a visit to Yuma, Arizona, President Donald Trump said that he had postponed an August 15 review of the January trade agreement because he was frustrated over Beijing's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
"I postponed talks with China. You know why? I don't want to deal with them now," Trump said during a briefing. "What China did to the world was not even thinkable. They could have stopped (the virus)."
The Phase 1 trade deal paused a damaging trade war between Washington and Beijing the Trump administration launched in 2018, when it first imposed unusually heavy tariffs on imports from the Asian country.
Since then, the two sides have exchanged tariffs on more than 360 billion dollars in two-way trade.
The US says a primary goal of the aggressive tariff strategy is to decrease the trade imbalance with China, which totaled 379 billion dollars in 2018.
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