Donald Trump, US president, will meet with Liu He, China’s vice-premier, at the end of high-level trade talks this week in an attempt to raise pressure on Beijing to make big concessions on structural economic reforms that could pave the way for a deal to end the tariff war.
Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury secretary, revealed plans for Mr Trump’s encounter with Mr Liu on Monday, just before the US Department of Justice unveiled criminal charges against Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company, potentially throwing a wrench into the talks. Mr Mnuchin had told reporters there had been “significant movement” in the negotiations but “very complicated issues” remained.
The discussions in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday represent the first face-to-face cabinet-level discussions with China since a steak dinner at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires last December, when Mr Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping struck a three-month long ceasefire in their trade war. If no deal is reached by March 2, tariffs on $200bn of Chinese imports are set to increase from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, which could rattle financial markets and exacerbate fears of a global economic slowdown.