Top officials from the United States and China today launched a new round of trade talks before a summit between their Presidents, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, expected to be held in Beijing later this month. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng today at the Paris headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to hash out trade issues between the world’s two largest economies.
The discussions are expected to focus on shifting US tariffs, the flow of Chinese-produced rare earth minerals and magnets to US buyers, the US’s high-tech export controls and Chinese purchases of US agricultural products. China and the US fought a bruising trade war for most part of last year, with reciprocal tariffs reaching triple digits at one point and export restrictions threatening to wreck global supply chains for critical minerals.
The two-day meeting in Paris is being seen as setting the stage for President Trump to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi. Washington has said Trump will visit China from 31st of March to 2nd of April, although Beijing has yet to confirm those dates in line with its usual practice.
Tensions between the two countries cooled after President Trump met his Chinese counterpart Xi at Busan in South Korea in October, but new US probes into Chinese industrial overcapacity and forced labour announced on Wednesday threaten more instability.
