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The United States and China have resumed trade talks in anticipation of a meeting between their two leaders later this month, according to the Wall Street Journal.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke by telephone on Friday, the newspaper reported on Monday night, citing people who knew the conversation. The United States is asking China to come up with a clear offer before negotiations on a trade deal begin, but Beijing wants to discuss it first, then make a firm proposal later, according to the report.
A spokesperson for the Department of Finance did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comments on this matter.
The talks reported are the latest attempt to find a way out of the trade war between the two economic superpowers, which has resulted in heavy tariffs on huge amounts of exports. But doubts remain about the possibility of reaching an agreement quickly.
Friday's talks failed to resolve the stalemate between the two sides, but were seen as a positive step towards mutual understanding, the newspaper reported.
President Donald Trump is expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G20 summit later this month in Argentina.
The Trump administration has already imposed tariffs on Chinese products of $ 250 billion since July. Customs duties on $ 200 billion of these goods are expected to increase by 25% to 10% on 1 January, further aggravating the conflict.
China has so far responded with tariffs on $ 110 billion worth of US products and is likely to react more if the US continues to rise in early January.
The United States has imposed tariffs on Chinese products ranging from food seasonings to baseball gloves to network routers and industrial machinery parts. China's retaliatory tariffs have affected thousands of US exports, including meat, alcoholic beverages, chemicals, clothing, machinery, furniture and auto parts.
The Trump administration has sent conflicting messages as to whether the two countries are approaching a truce.
The Trump administration is divided between free traders – including those on Wall Street such as Mnuchin and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow – and extremists like US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the White House's trade advisor Peter Navarro.
Kudlow highlighted the differences between the two parties last month stating, "China has not responded positively to any of our demands."
But Trump talked about the prospects of a positive encounter with Xi.
"We will have a good meeting and we will see what we can do," he said at a press conference held last week after the midterm elections. A few days before US voters go to the polls, Trump said he and Xi had "productive" talks over the phone, but did not say anything.
Nevertheless, the dividing lines between the United States and China were clearly visible Friday at a meeting between senior military officials, who clashed over the South China Sea, Taiwan, freedom religious and trade.
Trump is given as a priority to adopt an aggressive stance towards China for what it calls unfair trading practices, including intellectual property theft and forced transfers of technology. He threatened to further aggravate the trade war by imposing tariffs on all remaining products that China sells to the United States.
A large number of US manufacturers, farmers and legislators on both sides of the aisle say they appreciate the administration's efforts to change China's trade policy. But some argue that fares are not the best way to solve problems. They pose a dilemma to US importers who must decide to absorb the higher cost of the goods or pass them on to consumers, and some exporters suffer from retaliatory tariffs imposed by China.
Former White House economic adviser, Gary Cohn, left the administration earlier this year as a result of a fierce disagreement over steel tariffs and tariffs. 39; aluminum. Earlier this week, Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive, told the BBC that Trump's tariffs could hurt the US economy.
"I consider the tariffs as a bit of a consumption tax [and] we do not want to tax our consumers when they spend their disposable income on what we produce, which is services, "he said.
