CHINA and the United States will continue economic and trade consultations in Washington this week, after reaching consensus in principle on major issues during their high-level Beijing talks, State media reported.
China would like to address the problems of economic and trade frictions with the United States in a cooperative way to promote the conclusion of a deal accepted by both sides, President Xi Jinping said while meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Beijing on Friday.
Chinese and U.S. consultation teams made important progress for the current stage, Xi said. He added that the both nations should make more efforts for a win-win deal and certain principles are necessary for cooperation.
The two countries’ economic and trade teams have had frequent and helpful consultations since December, Xi said. He has emphasized many times that cooperation is the best choice for the two countries.
The U.S. team expressed the willingness to make joint efforts with the Chinese team to strive for the conclusion of a deal that meets the interests of both sides.
“We bring the best wishes of President Trump. He’s asked us to state that he also places great importance on his personal relationship with you,” Lighthizer said.
“We have had two very good days of negotiations. We feel that we have made headway on some very, very important and very difficult issues,” he said. “We have additional work we have to do but we are hopeful.”
The meeting came after the conclusion of two days of high-level economic and trade consultations headed by Vice Premier Liu He, Lighthizer and Mnuchin in Beijing.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the two sides had in-depth communication in the two days on topics of mutual concern including technological transfers, intellectual property rights protection, nontariff barriers, the service industry, agriculture, the trade balance and an implementation mechanism, as well as on particular issues of concern to China.
Both sides had specific discussions about a memorandum of understanding on bilateral economic and trade issues, Xinhua reported. The two sides said they will step up their work within the time limit for consultations set by both heads of state, and strive for consensus.
After tit-for-tat exchanges of hefty import tariffs, China and the United States agreed in December to halt new tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks. Since then, the world’s two largest economies have conducted intense negotiations on a wide array of topics, such as trade and structural issues.
Wei Jianguo, vice president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said China and the United States have maintained close contacts in recent months, which reflects their positive desire to solve genuine problems and foster cooperation.
January marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of China-U.S. diplomatic relations. Bilateral trade grew from less than US$2.5 billion 40 years ago to more than US$630 billion in 2018. Over the same period, two-way investment rose from practically nil to more than US$240 billion.
China’s exports to the United States climbed 1.9 percent year on year to 252.11 billion yuan (US$37.21 billion) last month, according to official figures. During the period, foreign direct investment from the United States into the Chinese mainland recorded a 124.6-percent year-on-year growth.