China insists trade war talks with US are continuing after reports Washington turned down meeting
- Foreign ministry spokeswoman says she is not aware of any changes after reports that US rebuffed Beijing’s offer due to lack of progress over intellectual property protection and structural reform
- China’s chief negotiator Liu He is due to visit Washington next week for talks with senior US government figures
Beijing insisted on Wednesday that it remains in close contact with Washington as the two sides work to resolve their trade disputes following reports that the US had rejected the offer of a meeting.
A report in the Financial Times had said that the US had turned down proposals to hold a vice-ministerial meeting in Washington to pave the way for next week’s talks between China’s chief negotiator Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The report cited a lack of progress on key US grievances such as intellectual property protection and far-reaching structural reforms of the Chinese economy as the reasons for turning down the request.
But when Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, was asked about the report on Wednesday, she told reporters: “I noticed that an American official has clarified the issue. The two sides have remained in contact over trade talks, I haven’t heard of any changes.”
Earlier, Larry Kudlow, director of the US National Economic Council, denied that a vice-ministerial meeting had been scheduled for this week.
Kudlow told CNBC: “There were no other intermediate meetings scheduled. The story is unchanged. We are moving towards negotiations.”
The visit by Liu next week will be his first visit to Washington since May.
Beijing had a plan to dominate tech. Then the US trade war happened
Liu told Chinese state media after that trip that Beijing and Washington had reached a consensus on “not fighting a trade war”, but the relationship quickly soured.
The US introduced the first round of punitive tariffs on Chinese products in July, triggering an immediate retaliation from Beijing and a trade war that has hit markets and the economic outlook across the world.
The two sides have a deadline of March 1 to reach agreement before another threatened round of tariff increases kicks in.
