China announced on Thursday that a senior Chinese delegation will visit the United States for trade talks later this month. China and the United States have been embroiled in a tit-for-tat trade war with both countries imposing 25 percent tariffs on each others goods since the start of the year.
Both the U.S. and China have threatened further tariffs on exports worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The talks offer a glimmer of hope for progress in resolving the conflict that has set world markets on edge.
The Chinese delegation, led by the Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen, will meet with U.S. representatives, led by the Under Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs David Malpass.
The announcement of the forthcoming meeting comes after a lull in talks between the two countries. The last official round of talks was in early June when U.S. commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in Beijing. It is unclear whether the talks will take place before or after August 23, when Washington is due to activate additional tariffs on $16 billion of Chinese goods. Beijing has indicated it will retaliate in kind.
The upcoming meeting is at a lower level compared with four previous rounds of talks that involved Liu, Ross and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Having made little progress in the previous meetings, the White House said earlier this month that the United States is open to further talks with China on how to resolve the festering trade dispute.
