U.S.-China trade talks begin after Trump received "beautiful" letter from China's Xi
- 5 years ago
China and the U.S. were moving towards an agreement to end a months-long trade war when, suddenly, it all seemed to fall apart this week.
But on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump insisted a trade deal with China was still within reach this week.
For more on this and other news around the world, let's turn to our Hong Yoo…
So Yoo, China and the U.S. had trade talks scheduled for Thursday, how is the meeting developing?
The meeting began just over an hour ago in Washington at 5p.m., local time, Connyoung.
The talks between the China's top trade envoy Liu He and his U.S. counterpart Robert Lighthizer will last two days.
This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to raise tariffs on 200 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese goods.
The Chinese government in return, threatened to retaliate which escalated the trade friction between the two countries.
Yet, just hours before U.S. and Chinese officials were due to sit down at the offices of the US Trade Representative, Trump revealed from the White House that he had just received a letter from his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and suggested a deal was still attainable.
"I did get last night a very beautiful letter from President Xi. Let's work together. Let's see if we can get something done. But, they renegotiated the deal. I mean they took, whether it's intellectual property theft. They took many. many parts of their deal and they renegotiated."
Negotiators at the table of talks are China's Liu He and Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from the U.S. side.
A week ago, the top Trump administration officials seemed to suggest a deal would soon be struck with China but Trump had dampened the optimism when he said he plans to impose stronger tariffs on Chinese imports.
These talks that economists and businesses say risk being the most economically consequential of all of Trump's tariff moves so far will continue into Friday.
During the talks, Beijing is likely to retaliate against President Trump's tariff increase and reject the idea that it has reneged on any commitments made during the months of tough negotiations that led to this week's showdown.
But on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump insisted a trade deal with China was still within reach this week.
For more on this and other news around the world, let's turn to our Hong Yoo…
So Yoo, China and the U.S. had trade talks scheduled for Thursday, how is the meeting developing?
The meeting began just over an hour ago in Washington at 5p.m., local time, Connyoung.
The talks between the China's top trade envoy Liu He and his U.S. counterpart Robert Lighthizer will last two days.
This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to raise tariffs on 200 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese goods.
The Chinese government in return, threatened to retaliate which escalated the trade friction between the two countries.
Yet, just hours before U.S. and Chinese officials were due to sit down at the offices of the US Trade Representative, Trump revealed from the White House that he had just received a letter from his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and suggested a deal was still attainable.
"I did get last night a very beautiful letter from President Xi. Let's work together. Let's see if we can get something done. But, they renegotiated the deal. I mean they took, whether it's intellectual property theft. They took many. many parts of their deal and they renegotiated."
Negotiators at the table of talks are China's Liu He and Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from the U.S. side.
A week ago, the top Trump administration officials seemed to suggest a deal would soon be struck with China but Trump had dampened the optimism when he said he plans to impose stronger tariffs on Chinese imports.
These talks that economists and businesses say risk being the most economically consequential of all of Trump's tariff moves so far will continue into Friday.
During the talks, Beijing is likely to retaliate against President Trump's tariff increase and reject the idea that it has reneged on any commitments made during the months of tough negotiations that led to this week's showdown.