US officials plan to travel to China next week to resume face-to-face talks aimed at ending a trade war between them, the White House has confirmed. And Chinese officials will travel to the US for further talks in Washington in early April.
US-China trade talks aimed at ending a damaging tariff war will resume from this Tuesday in Washington, the White House has announced. The last set of talks ended Friday in Beijing with no deal, though US President Donald Trump said the discussions were going “extremely well” and suggested he could extend a Mar 1 truce deadline for an agreement to be reached.
Trade talks between the US and China have broken up without a deal, with the US warning that “very difficult issues” remain unresolved. The talks in China this week were aimed at securing a new deal before further US tariffs are imposed on 1 March. China said negotiations would now continue in the US next week.
United States negotiators are preparing to press China next week on longstanding demands that it reform how it treats American companies’ intellectual property in order to seal a trade deal that could prevent tariffs from rising on Chinese imports.
The United States administration has formally confirmed it intends to pursue a trade deal with the UK “as soon as it is ready” after leaving the EU. Donald Trump’s trade representative Robert Lighthizer notified Congress of plans to open negotiations with the UK, as well as with the EU and Japan.
President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization (WTO) if the body fails to change the way it treats America. “If they don't shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
The United States launched five separate World Trade Organization dispute actions on Monday challenging retaliatory tariffs imposed by China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico and Turkey following U.S. duties on steel and aluminum. The retaliatory tariffs on up to a combined US$28.5 billion worth of U.S. exports are illegal under WTO rules, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.
The World Trade Organization meeting in Buenos Aires concluded a ministerial meeting Wednesday with nothing significant to boast -- a meager outcome for its first gathering in the Donald Trump era.
The Donald Trump administration took the first step toward renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, plunging into a battle that pits some Republicans and industry supporters of the pact against Democrats and some of the president's most ardent backers.