Amid tensions, US, China resuming trade talks

U.S. and Chinese officials are set to resume trade talks Wednesday amid rising trade tensions between the top two global economies.

The two days of meetings are to be held between mid-level officials from both countries to set a framework for future negotiations, Reuters reported. These will be the first formal discussions since Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met Chinese economic adviser Liu He in June.

In the event that discussions go poorly, both countries are preparing to hit each other with new tariffs Thursday, as their trade dispute continues.

President Trump has threatened to smack tariffs on almost all of the $500 billion of Chinese annual exports to the U.S.

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China said it hopes for quiet, steady talks to get “a good result on the basis of equality, parity and trust,” according to Reuters.

Chinese officials have maintained this positive outlook as talks begin. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Wednesday that they still hope for a “good outcome.”

Though Lu told Reuters he could not make comments as the talks continue, he added, “We hope that everyone can calmly sit down together and have earnest discussions toward an outcome that is in beneficial to both sides.”

The Chinese message is in contradiction to signals from the White House.

The president told Reuters Monday that he didn’t “anticipate much” from the talks. He said that resolving the trade war will “take time because China’s done too well for too long, and they’ve become spoiled.”

The talks will be conducted by Treasury Undersecretary David Malpass and Chinese Commerce Vice Minister Wang Shouwen. Deputy United States Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish is also expected to be involved.

A China scholar for the American Enterprise Institute, Derek Scissors, told Reuters that the talks might go to the next step, “But I’d say there’s an 80-90 percent chance they are a total waste of time, and that’s why no one in the administration is talking about this.”