US, China hold talks on trade deal

US and Chinese trade officials discussed the implementation of their phase-one trade agreement today, in the first confirmed trade talks for several months. But the two countries provided sharply differing summaries of what was discussed.

The talks between US trade representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese vice-premier Liu He discussed the implementation of the phase-one trade agreement reached in January, according to separate statements from the USTR's office and China's commerce ministry (MoC).

The US statement focused on China's commitments under the deal, including what it said were "significant increases in purchases of US products". It also highlighted the steps China has taken to put in place the structural changes such as protecting intellectual property, opening up China's financial services and agricultural sectors to US investment and eliminating forced technology transfers.

The upbeat tone was echoed in the Chinese statement, which referred to a constructive dialogue on co-ordinating economic policies and implementing the deal. But the MoC made no mention of any of the specific issues that the USTR said were discussed. The two sides agreed to create the atmosphere needed to promote the implementation of the deal, it said.

What USTR described as scheduled talks came almost a week after US President Donald Trump said he had postponed a review of the trade agreement. Under the terms of the phase-one deal, US and Chinese representatives were scheduled to hold a review six months after the agreement took effect in mid-February.

By Kevin Foster