WASHINGTON\u2014U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin plan to travel to China next week for another round of trade talks with\u2026<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON\u2014U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin plan to travel to China next week for another round of trade talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, a Trump administration official said on March 19.
The resumption in face-to-face talks, the first since President Donald Trump delayed a March 1 deadline to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, marks an acceleration of the negotiations aimed at ending an eight-month trade war between the world\u2019s two largest economies.
\u201cTalks with China are going very well,\u201d Trump said at the end of a White House news conference with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Since Trump\u2019s delay of the March 1 tariff hike, the two sides have only negotiated by telephone and video link.
The administration official confirming the new round of talks did not provide further details on the expected duration of the talks or any further rounds. The source, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter, spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that following next week\u2019s negotiation in Beijing, Liu would travel to Washington the week of April 1 as the two sides aim for a deal by the end of the month. The report, citing unnamed administration officials, said the trade talks were in the final stages.
The Journal report and Trump\u2019s latest upbeat comments contrasted with a Bloomberg report on Tuesday that progress in the talks was slowing as Chinese officials have \u201cstepped back\u201d from some initial promises they made on improving intellectual property protections demanded by the United States.
Washington and Beijing have slapped import duties on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of each other\u2019s products.
Washington has demanded that Beijing implement stronger protections for intellectual property rights and end policies that it says coerce U. S. companies to transfer technology to Chinese firms in exchange for access to the Chinese market. The United States is also demanding that China rein in hefty industrial subsidies that it blames for the buildup of excess production capacity in China.
Since late February, the two sides have been working to refine language on reform pledges that China intends to take, along with an enforcement mechanism aimed at ensuring Beijing will follow through on such changes.
But Chinese officials have sought an immediate end to the tariffs that Trump has imposed on about $250 billion worth of Chinese imports. Trump administration officials have not specified any plans for rolling back such duties.
The deal under negotiation also is widely expected to include increased Chinese purchases of American goods, including farm and energy commodities, to help reduce the U. S. goods trade deficit with China, which hit a record $419 billion last year.
Among purchases of U. S. goods under consideration are new Chinese orders for Boeing Co. jetliners. But the grounding of the company\u2019s 737 MAX models following the recent Ethiopian Airlines crash have cast a shadow over immediate hopes for such a deal, according to industry sources.
China also made its biggest purchases of U. S. pork in nearly two years last week, according to U. S. Department of Agriculture data on March 14, as Chinese hog prices surged after an outbreak of a deadly swine disease.
Buyers in the world\u2019s biggest hog producer and pork consumer struck deals for the meat despite import tariffs of 62 percent imposed by China on U. S. pork.
The duties had slashed China\u2019s imports of U. S. pork since last summer.
But the months-long outbreak of African swine fever in China, which has spread to 111 confirmed cases in 28 provinces and regions across the country since August 2018, has left the country with no choice but to purchase U. S. goods.
China also recently resumed purchases of other U. S. farm products, including soybeans and sorghum, that face retaliatory import tariffs.
By David Lawder & Roberta Rampton<\/p>\n