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Oliver Contreras / Getty; Greg Baker / Getty; Shayanne Gal / Business Insider
- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is expected to travel to Washington for preparatory trade talks ahead of a meeting between US President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the South China Morning Post reported.
- Trump and Xi are expected to hold an informal meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the end of November.
- Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported during the night that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had a phone conversation with Liu He on Friday night.
- Markets welcomed the news with rising European stock indexes and rising US index futures.
Trade relations between the United States and China appear to be worsening shortly before an informal meeting between President Donald Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping later this month.
Trump and Xi are expected to hold an informal meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in Buenos Aires, Argentina in late November, and senior officials from both countries seem to be preparing a series of preparatory meetings.
More recently, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is due to travel to Washington DC before the meeting in Buenos Aires, in order to meet senior officials of the Trump administration.
The SCMP report added that his flight to the United States would not have been confirmed yet.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal announced during the night that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had a phone conversation with Liu He on Friday night to discuss business issues. This conversation "did not lead to any progress," the Journal reports.
Read more: Trump's top business advisor warns Goldman Sachs and Wall Street not to let their "stink" in the US-China trade war talks
"Currently, the economic teams of the two countries have contacts to implement the consensus of the leaders of the two countries", Deputy Commerce Minister Li Chenggang told reporters earlier this month.
"We hope that this work, with the hard work of both sides, will make positive progress possible."
Information about a possible meeting between Liu He and his US counterparts comes shortly after a report that President Trump again raised the possibility of levying high tariffs on the import of cars in the USA.
According to a Bloomberg report, the White House is internally distributing a draft report from the Commerce Department on auto rates. Trump plans to meet with his sales team on Tuesday to discuss the report. The release of a Commerce Department report on auto rates would be the next official step toward the imposition of such restrictions.
The US government has already introduced tariffs ranging from 10% to 25% on Chinese goods entering the United States for $ 250 billion. Similar tariffs have been introduced by Chinese policymakers on US products entering the country, but on a smaller scale.
Trump had already threatened to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports to the United States, for a total of more than $ 500 billion worth of goods, an initiative that would likely significantly slow world trade.
Shares welcomed the possibility of further dialogue between the world's two largest economies, China's composite index, the Shanghai Composite index, having gained nearly 1% Tuesday, and the main European stock exchanges, up to 0.7%. The overall Euro Stoxx 50 index is about 0.6% higher.
US stock index futures are also up slightly after yesterday's technology-driven sell-off.
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