China sees intensive contact with U.S. this month ahead of September trade talks

[August 01, 2019]  BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese and U.S. working teams will be in intensive contact this month to prepare "good groundwork" for the next round of face-to-face trade talks in September, the commerce ministry said on Thursday.

U.S. and Chinese negotiators ended a brief round of talks in Shanghai on Wednesday, with little sign of progress apart from an agreement to meet again next month.

It was their first in-person talks since presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a trade ceasefire at a G20 summit in June.

The world's two biggest economies have levied billions of dollars of tariffs on each other's goods in a year-long trade war, disrupting global supply chains and roiling financial markets.

Talks between the two sides broke down in May after U.S. officials accused China of pulling back from earlier commitments. Washington sharply hiked tariffs on some Chinese goods and Beijing retaliated, escalating the trade dispute.

"With regards to this (week's) round of negotiations, both sides communicated over two topics: One is how we view the past - we mainly discussed why negotiations broke down and clarified our views on some economic and trade issues," commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng told reporters at a regular briefing.

"The other one is how we view the future to ascertain the principles and methodology of negotiations, as well as relevant timetables."

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He with United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are seen before the start of talks at the Xijiao Conference Center in Shanghai, China July 31, 2019. Ng Han Guan/Pool via REUTERS

China and the United States can find a solution to trade issues if both sides' concerns are taken into consideration, Gao said, reiterating past comments from Beijing.

Two people familiar with the latest talks said they focused largely on goodwill gestures including Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans, pork, ethanol and other commodities, and U.S. moves to relax restrictions on sales to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

The month-long delay until the next meeting gives both sides time to take action on these commitments, the Washington-based sources said.

(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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