After a long hiatus, Chinese and US negotiators resumed talks on a solution to their trade war on Saturday. Earlier this week, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai unveiled the new China strategy. A rapid resumption of talks had already been announced then, and today Tai had a video call with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.
In that conversation, both sides expressed their deepest concerns and agreed to raise mutual “legitimate concerns” in the talks, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported. They also exchanged views on the implementation of a first deal the two world powers signed in early 2020 in the three-year trade war. Beijing and Washington will continue to speak, Xinhua said.
The Chinese are making too little effort to implement that first agreement as far as the Americans are concerned. Then the two countries entered into a sort of truce that at the very least prevented new or higher tariffs. The Chinese pledge to purchase $200 billion more goods in the United States by the end of this year was essential to that agreement.
Both countries have been embroiled in a trade dispute with reciprocal punitive tariffs for more than three years. In particular, the Americans accuse China of unfair trade practices, unauthorized state aid, market barriers, and intellectual property theft.
