China welcomes new talks as Trump assesses trade war’s progress

The US-China trade war has taken another twist with the news that Washington has invited Beijing to a new round of talks – despite the prospect of blanket tariffs on Chinese imports remaining.

According to CNN, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin invited China to resume the dialogue, a move which Beijing has welcomed.

China’s foreign ministry said it was working with the US on the details, the BBC reports.

However, Xinhua reports that Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng warned the US that its trade deficit with China was caused by “the market” and cannot be addressed by new duties. “The US side should recognise that the unilateral measure of imposing tariffs cannot solve the problem,” he said.

That may fall on deaf ears. Yesterday, President Trump took to Twitter to offer his assessment on the trade war’s progress, saying “our markets are surging, theirs are collapsing.”

He added that “we are under no pressure to make a deal with China, they are under pressure to make a deal with us.”

The US decision to offer new talks runs counter to previous rhetoric from the administration, which suggested that Washington has little appetite for further dialogue unless China makes big changes. President Trump’s confident tweeting seems to reinforce that policy.

However, the Financial Times, quoting a source familiar with the negotiations, reports that Mnuchin has requested talks with top Chinese official Liu He “to diffuse tensions and stop the US moving ahead with the new levies.”