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Chinese negotiators will arrive in Washington "shortly" with the love of ironing out an informal deal, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Tuesday at a panel event in Washington, though he did not specify an exact time frame for a meeting.
The fresh momentum comes after months of widening stalemate between the world's two largest economies over trade, a key issue for Trump.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said later Tuesday morning on CNBC that the restart of talks "a good thing."
Trump is scheduled to meet with members of his team on Tuesday to discuss a separate issue: auto tariffs. The US government is weighing whether to impose tariffs on Japanese and European SUVs, and ostensibly to protect national security interests. It's unlikely a decision is imminent, according to a US official.
That issue is separate from the Chinese tariff talks.
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said he would have a "good meeting. "
So far, Mnuchin and Liu, but a conversation between Trump and Xi.
The Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Li Chenggang said at a news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. "We hope to achieve positive results with efforts from both sides."
Ross was slightly more equivocal Tuesday in his comments at Yahoo! Finance's America Financial Future summit. When asked if the two sides were in the final innings of their negotiations, Ross replied, "We are where we are."
He also addressed rumors that Linda McMahon is the President of the Small Business Administration. "I'll serve as long as the President wants, and have no indication to the contrary," he said.
The United States is demanding that China come up with a bargain to start a business, but it does not matter which way it is, according to the WSJ's report, citing people familiar with discussions.
Both sides have been working towards a foreign trade, which has left investors.
President and CEO of the Business Roundtable Joshua Bolten speaking at the Yahoo Yahoo said the trump administration had made "mistakes" in its strategy with China by slapping rounds of tariffs and the opening gambit.
"It would have been much more productive to hold those threats [of tariffs] and said, "President Bolt, who previously served as President George W. Bush's chief of staff and budget director." "This is not a country that's going to be easily bullied."
Top Trump administration
Mnuchin on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund meeting in Bali, Indonesia, last month dismissed the idea of the President of the United States. "To the extent we can make progress toward a meeting, we would like to have a discussion about it."
Shortly thereafter, Kudlow warned of the differences between the two sides when he said last month, "China has not responded positively to any of our asks."
The Trump administration has been divided into two groups – including those with Wall Street backgrounds like Mnuchin and Kudlow – and hardliners like the US Trade Representative Peter Lighthizer and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.
Just last week Navarro took a shot on Wall Street, warning "globalist elites" against meddling with the Trump administration's policy on China. "Donald J. Trump's terms – not Wall Street Terms," Navarro said during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Tuesday, Kudlow said Navarro, to train economics professor, "misspoke" and "was not authorized" to speak on the matter.
The United States has imposed tariffs on china and baseball gloves to network routers and industrial machinery parts. China's retaliatory tariffs have included meat, alcoholic drinks, chemicals, clothes, machinery, furniture and auto parts.
And doubts remain over whether the two economic superpowers can reach a deal anytime soon.
"The issue with China is not just tariffs," said Ross at the Yahoo! panel. "If it was just tariffs, I think we could work it very, very, very quickly."
"The real issue is intellectual property rights, forced technology transfers, industrial espionage, that kind of thing, we can not tolerate abuses of that sort," he said.
The trump administration has already slapped $ 250 billion in Chinese products since July. The tariffs on $ 200 billion are set to increase to 25% from 10% on January 1, which would further escalate the conflict.
China has so far retaliated with tariffs on $ 110 billion of US products and is likely to respond to the United States goes ahead with the increase at the beginning of January.
Trump has made it a priority to take an aggressive stance against China. China sells to the United States.
Many American manufacturers, farmers and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle say they appreciate the administration's efforts to change China's trade policies. But some argue the tariffs are not the best way to address the problems. They pose a dilemma for US importers who must decide whether to be absorbed into the bargain or not.
CNN's Steven Jiang, Kevin Liptak, Allie Malloy, and Katherine Lobosco contributed to this report.
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