The United States and China begin a new round of trade talks in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, with follow-up sessions at higher levels scheduled for later in the week.
The talks follow a round of negotiations that ended in Beijing last week without a new trade deal or resolution to the current trade war taking place between the world’s two largest economies – each of which has slapped heavy tariffs on the other nation’s imports.
The talks are aimed at "achieving needed structural changes in China that affect trade between the United States and China. The two sides will also discuss China’s pledge to purchase a substantial amount of goods and services from the United States," the White House said in a written statement issued Tuesday morning.
The higher-level talks are scheduled to begin this Thursday and will be led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a strong proponent of pressing China to end practices that the United States says include forced technology transfers from U.S. companies and intellectual property theft. China, which denies that it engages in such practices, confirmed that Vice Premier Liu He will visit Washington, D.C. on Thursday and Friday for the scheduled talks.
The White House also said that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, presidential economic adviser Larry Kudlow and trade adviser Peter Navarro would also take part in the high-level trade meetings.
U.S. tariffs on $200 billion in imports from China are set to rise to 25% from 10% if no deal is reached by March 1 of this year. U.S. President Donald Trump, who suggested last week that he could extend the deadline for the talks, reiterated in a speech on Monday that the negotiations with China had been fruitful.
Speaking in Beijing on Tuesday, the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councilor Wang Yi, told a visiting U.S. business delegation that everyone was "paying attention" to this week’s talks.
