China, U.S. to begin trade talks in Beijing Jan. 7

Fri, Jan 4, 2019 | By publisher


Politics

China and the U.S. will hold vice-ministerial level trade talks in Beijing between Jan. 7 and 8 to end a dispute that is inflicting increasing pain on both economies and roiling global financial markets.

The two nations have been locked in a trade war for much of the past year, disrupting the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of goods and stoking fears of a global economic slowdown.

A working team, led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Jeffrey Gerrish will come to China to have “positive and constructive discussions’’ with Chinese counterparts, China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement on its website.

The ministry said the two sides “confirmed” the dates in a phone call on Friday, but did not provide other details.

At a summit in Argentina late last year, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a ceasefire.

They decided to hold off on imposing more tariffs for 90 days starting Dec. 1 while they attempt to negotiate a deal.

Now, China and the U.S. face a key March deadline for talks to end the damaging trade war, or Washington could proceed with a sharp hike in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods originally set for Jan. 1 and Beijing could retaliate.

Trump said talks toward a deal are progressing well, but it is unclear if Beijing will yield to key U.S. demands over trade imbalances, market access and alleged Chinese abuses of intellectual property.

Data, this week, showed a marked loss of momentum in the world’s two largest economies at the end of 2018.

U.S. factory activity slowed more than expected in December, according to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

Also, Chinese data on Monday showed its manufacturing activity contracted for the first time in more than two years. (Reuters/NAN)

– Jan. 4, 2019 @ 14:12 GMT |

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