Steven Mnuchin

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not comment on the talks during a photo session with Vice-Premier Liu He. Trump complained that China has not been ‘coming through’ in terms of buying US farm products or making progress on a deal to end the year-long trade war

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and senior U.S. officials are set to travel to China next Monday for the first high-level, face-to-face trade negotiations between the world’s two biggest economies since talks broke down in May.

“We were about 90% of the way there [with a deal] and I think there’s a path to complete this,” Mnuchin says in Bahrain. Trump is meeting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Saturday at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

Two separate Chinese sources told the South China Morning Post that the talks hit a snag because the US side “kept adding new demands in the late stages of the negotiations”. They said “some of these would directly affect China’s political and social stability”. Beijing was particularly angered by the additional tariffs and what it saw as the US’ attempt to shift the blame to China.

06/05 - 18:34 - Senior US officials accused China of reneging on commitments it had agreed to in negotiations over a comprehensive trade deal and said tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports would increase on Friday.

30/01 - 18:54 - The United States and China began two days of talks Wednesday amid muted hopes for an agreement that would head off President Trump’s planned March 2 tariff increase on $200 billion in Chinese goods.

Whatever the president says, the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, is not the problem.

20/07/18 - 11:57 - Treasury chief joins G-20 summit as world trade conflict grows. Trump on eve of talks says China, EU manipulate exchange rates.