BEIJING (Reuters) - China and the United States will hold vice ministerial level trade talks in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday, with the two countries under pressure to end a trade war that is hurting the world’s two largest economies and roiling global financial markets.
For much of the past year, the trade war has disrupted the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods and stoked fears of a global economic slowdown.
A team led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish will come to China to have “positive and constructive discussions” with Chinese counterparts, China’s commerce ministry said in a statement on its website.
In a separate statement on Friday, USTR said the delegation will also include Under Secretaries from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Treasury, as well as senior officials from those agencies and the White House.
Neither statement provided more details about the talks.
Pressure to strike a deal mounted this week after data showed slowing U.S. and Chinese manufacturing activity and as companies like Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] said the trade battle was hitting earnings.
At a summit in Argentina late last year, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to hold off on additional tariffs for 90 days while they attempted to negotiate a deal.
Now China and the United States face a March deadline for talks to end the damaging trade war, or Washington could proceed with a sharp hike in U.S. tariffs and Beijing could retaliate.
Trump has said talks toward a deal are progressing well, but it was unclear if Beijing will yield to key U.S. demands over trade imbalances, market access, and alleged Chinese abuses of intellectual property.
