Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials launched a new round of talks in Paris on Sunday to iron out kinks in their trade truce and clear a smooth path for U.S. President Donald Trump's trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of March, according to Reuters.
The discussions, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, are expected to focus on shifting U.S. tariffs, the flow of Chinese-produced rare earth minerals and magnets to U.S. buyers, American high-tech export controls and Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products.
The two sides began talks on Sunday morning at the Paris headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and were expected to continue on Monday, a Treasury official said. China is not a member of the club of 38 mostly wealthy democracies and considers itself a developing country.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who is participating in the talks, said before departing for Paris that U.S. officials want to ensure stability in the U.S.-China relationship.
"We want to make sure that we continue to get the rare earths we need for our manufacturing base, that they keep buying the kinds of things they should be buying from us, and that the leaders have a chance to get together and make sure that the relationship is going the way we want it to go," Greer said on Friday on CNBC.
The talks between Bessent, He, Greer and China trade negotiator Li Chenggang follow a string of their meetings in European cities last year to ease trade tensions that threatened a near collapse of trade between the world's two largest economies.
U.S.-China trade analysts said that with little time to prepare and Washington's attention focused on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, prospects for a major trade breakthrough are limited, in Paris or at the Beijing summit.
"Both sides, I think have a minimum goal of having a meeting, which sort of keeps things together and avoids a rupture and re-escalation of tensions," said Scott Kennedy, a China economics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Trump may want to come away from Beijing with major Chinese commitments to order new Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab aircraft and buy more U.S. liquefied natural gas and soybeans, but to get that he may need to offer some concession on U.S. export controls, Kennedy added.
Trump and Xi could potentially meet three other times this year, including at a China-hosted APEC summit in November and a U.S.-hosted G20 summit in December that could yield more tangible progress.
Follow the latest news on Google News
