A Chinese vice-commerce minister and US Treasury undersecretary will today try to revive trade negotiations that ended acrimoniously after their bosses last met in May. But neither side is optimistic that the meeting in Washington, between teams led by Wang Shouwen and David Malpass, can succeed where three earlier rounds failed.
Liu He, China’s vice-premier, and Steven Mnuchin, US Treasury secretary, said after meeting in May that neither side would resort to tariffs while negotiations continued. But only days later Donald Trump announced his intention to proceed with punitive tariffs on Chinese industrial exports worth $50bn annually.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Mr Trump said he had low expectations for this week’s talks and was in no rush to resolve the dispute.