Both sides said “progress” had been made in the talks but deep disagreements remain ahead of the March deadline set by leaders of both countries.
BEIJING — Talks between the United States and China to end their trade war will continue in Washington next week, officials from both countries said on Friday, hours after high-level negotiations between American and Chinese diplomats ended in Beijing.
While the White House described “progress” in the talks, many issues remain unresolved and the discussions will continue as both sides try to reach an agreement ahead of President Trump’s March 2 deadline. Mr. Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods if a deal cannot be reached by that date, though he suggested earlier this week that he would push the deadline back if there were progress in the talks.
Mr. Trump, speaking at the White House on Friday, said negotiations with China are going “extremely well,” but that the progress would only matter if a deal gets done.
“We’re a lot closer than we ever were in this country to having a real trade deal,” Mr. Trump said, adding that the agreement with China would cover “theft” and “unfairness.”
Mr. Trump said that the tariffs he has imposed on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports are hurting China “very badly” and that it would be “an honor” to remove them if an agreement can be reached.
The president added that after a Chinese delegation comes to the United States next week, he will likely meet with President Xi Jinping of China “at some point” to work out remaining differences.
Whether the two countries can work out the remaining differences is unclear and big sticking points remain in the trade talks, people briefed on the negotiations said.
“These detailed and intensive discussions led to progress between the two parties,” the White House press secretary said in a statement. “Much work remains, however.”
American officials said that the talks focused on so-called “structural” reforms that the United States wants China to make and on China’s purchases of American goods and services. The White House on Friday said that any agreement between the two countries will be included in a “memoranda of understanding between the two countries.”
The most difficult and intractable issue involves the Trump administration’s desire to put meaningful restrictions on China’s ability to keep investing enormous sums of money from the government, and from government-affiliated financial institutions, in a wide range of advanced manufacturing sectors that compete with American industries. These include areas like commercial aircraft manufacturing, semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
Another challenge for negotiators is that both sides perceive national security as being at stake in some of the issues.
China has been reluctant to unblock internet access to its market for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest and most successful businesses, like Facebook and Google.
