US, China to Hold Trade Talks Early Next Week: White House

US, China to Hold Trade Talks Early Next Week: White House
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin gives a briefing on cryptocurrency at the White House in Washington, D.C. on July 15, 2019. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Reuters
7/24/2019
Updated:
7/24/2019
U.S. negotiators will visit China early next week for trade negotiations to begin on July 30, the White House said in a statement on July 24.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will travel to Shanghai for the talks, which will be led by Vice Premier Liu Hui on the Chinese side, the statement added.

The meeting would mark the first face-to-face negotiations since President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to restart stalled trade talks during the G-20 Summit in Japan in late June.

According to the White House, the discussions will cover topics including intellectual property, forced technology transfer, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, services, the trade deficit, and enforcement.

Mnuchin told CNBC in an interview on July 24 that he was hopeful progress could be made toward a deal.

Mnuchin told CNBC he and Lighthizer will depart for China on June 29 and hold talks with their Chinese counterparts on July 30 and 31 in Shanghai, followed up by more talks in Washington later.

“There‘ll be a few more meetings before we get a deal done,” he later told reporters at the White House. I wouldn’t expect that we’ll resolve all the issues. But the fact that we’re back at the table at the direction of the two presidents is important.”

Mnuchin added that the United States still has a long list of big items to tackle as talks resume after being sidelined in May: “We have a lot of issues.”

He told CNBC that Shanghai held significance for the Chinese. “I take that as good news that we‘ll be making progress next week,” he said in the television network’s interview “Hopefully we’ll continue to progress.”

The United States and China are resuming negotiations as the world’s two largest economies amid an ongoing trade war.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday he expected Beijing to start buying U.S. agriculture products soon.

Lighthizer and Mnuchin emphasized the need for Beijing to make good on its pledge to buy more U.S. agricultural products in their recent phone calls with Chinese negotiators, Kudlow said.

President Donald Trump agreed during a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month to hold off on imposing tariffs on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese imports while talks resumed.
By Makini Brice and Susan Heavey. Epoch Times staff Cathy He contributed to this report.