China says delegation to visit US for trade talks this week

BEIJING: A top Chinese official will lead a delegation to Washington for trade talks this week, Beijing said on Thursday, as the two countries navigate a truce after months of friction.

Li Chenggang, China’s International Trade Representative and vice minister of commerce, “will travel to Washington to meet with relevant US officials”, commerce ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian said.

Tensions between the world’s two largest economies have simmered this year, but have significantly cooled since April, when both countries slapped escalating tariffs on each other’s exports.

At one point, the tit-for-tat duties reached triple digits on both sides, snarling supply chains as many importers halted shipments to try and wait for the governments to work things out.

Since then, Washington and Beijing have reached an agreement to de-escalate tensions, temporarily lowering tariffs to 30 percent on the United States’ side and 10 percent on China’s part.

Spokeswoman He said China was willing to work with the United States to “resolve issues through equal dialogue and consultation”.

Li’s trip to Washington comes days after US President Donald Trump said he expects to visit China this year or soon after.

“We’re going to have a great relationship with China,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

The US-China truce has been an uneasy one, with Washington previously accusing Beijing of violating their agreement and slow-walking export license approvals for rare earths.

China is the world’s leading producer of rare earths, used to make magnets essential to the automotive, electronics and defence industries.

The countries have since agreed to move forward.

This month, they delayed the threatened reimposition of higher tariffs on each other’s exports for another 90 days — meaning the pause on steeper duties will be in place until November 10.

And Bloomberg reported this month that US plane manufacturer Boeing is in talks to sell up to 500 aircraft to Chinese companies — a deal likely to be contingent on Washington and Beijing coming to a longer-term trade agreement.