High-stakes trade talks open in Washington

Top Chinese and US trade officials opened a series of important talks in Washington on Wednesday to address their differences on outstanding economic and trade issues.

The closed-door talks, headed by Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, kicked off Wednesday morning with an opening ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House and are scheduled to end on Thursday afternoon.

No information was available as of press time from the discussions, which have commanded the attention of the world. The trade conflict between China and the US, which including the imposition of billions of dollars of tariffs on each other’s imports, are affecting both economies and global growth.

Speaking at a news conference as the high-level trade talks were being held several blocks away, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the actual amount of tariffs that have been applied both in the US and China is not enough to have material effects on GDP in both countries.

“The concern is more a longer drawn-out set of negotiations back and forth, which could result in sapping business confidence,” Powell said. “Uncertainty is not the friend of business.”

Wednesday’s talks were a continuation of trade meetings held in Beijing Jan 7-9. Last year, the two sides also had met multiple times for negotiations.

The two countries have agreed to suspend any increase in tariffs after a meeting between President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec 1.

Following the top leaders’ meeting, China’s Ministry of Commerce had said that in 90 days, economic and trade teams of both sides would “actively push forward” the consultation, following a clear schedule and road map.

Liu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chief of the Chinese side of the China-US comprehensive economic dialogue, arrived in Washington on Monday afternoon with his delegation of senior economic officials of the Chinese government.

It is the second time in a year that Liu has visited the US capital. Last May, he also led a team to talk with the US team, whose members include Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

For this round of talks, the US side also includes Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Larry Kudlow and Assistant to the President for Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro, according to a White House statement.

Kudlow said in an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday, “I think everybody, including the president, is basically moderately optimistic” about resolving the trade disputes between the world’s two largest economies.

Trump is scheduled to meet with Liu at the close of Thursday’s talks, the White House announced on Monday.

In earlier interviews with China Daily, several analysts also expressed “cautious optimism” on the Cabinet-level talks to end the protracted trade war.

Douglas H. Paal, vice-president of the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said there is a reasonable chance for a deal covering issues that are the normal subject of trade agreements, including tariffs, non-tariff barriers, markets opening, and intellectual property rights, which would reassure markets.

Analysts have warned that the lasting trade tension could not only impact their own businesses, workers and consumers, but also stoke global market fears of uncertainty and disruption, and erode confidence in the long-term global economic growth.

While acknowledging that the talks will not be easy given the complexity and difficulty of certain issues in dispute, China maintains that there will be no insoluble problems between the two countries as long as they both keep the benefits of cooperation in mind and show sincerity and mutual respect at the negotiating table.

Xinhua contributed to this story.