China, US hold trade talks for third time in two weeks
Beijing, Jun 10 (EFE).- China and the United States on Thursday held the third round of talks on trade issues in the last two weeks, the Chinese commerce ministry announced.
In a brief statement post on its website, the ministry said that Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao held a telephone conversation with his US counterpart, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
The two “exchanged views frankly and pragmatically on relevant issues and mutual concerns,” in the field of trade between China and the United States,” the statement said.
Both “stressed the importance of dialogue and communication between China and the United States in the field of business, and agreed to promote the healthy development of pragmatic cooperation on trade and investment while properly handling differences,” it added.
Both Wang and Raimondo agreed to continue the communications, according to the statement.
This is the third time in a span of two weeks that Beijing and Washington have discussed trade matters.
On June 2, Liu He, the leading Chinese negotiator on this matter and one of the four vice premiers of the country, spoke with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Liu has also spoke to US trade representative Katherine Tai on May 27, the first meeting between Beijing and Washington to officially address the trade issues since Joe Biden took over from Donald Trump in January.
The two countries have been engaged in a trade dispute since 2018.
In March, Tai had announced that Washington was not planning to lift the tariffs imposed on Chinese products during the Trump administration in the short term.
During his term, Trump imposed annual tariffs on about $370 million dollars worth of Chinese goods – roughly two-thirds of all US imports from China -, to which Beijing retaliated with its own tariffs on US imports.
The relationship between China and the US began to deteriorate in March 2018 with the start of the trade dispute and the subsequent imposition of tariffs by both countries, which later led to diplomatic rows and technology standoffs. EFE
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