Beijing: The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday said that the next round of the Chinese-US trade negotiations will be held in Washington on Thursday-Friday. According to the ministry, the seventh round of the negotiations will be attended by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, while the United States will be represented by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
The preliminary consultations will kick off later on Tuesday, said the White House's Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. She also confirmed that the talks at a higher level would start on Thursday. The previous round of trade negotiations between the United States and China was held on February 14-15. According to the White House, the parties have managed to reach some progress during the talks but still had to do "much work."
China and the United States have been engaged in a trade war since US President Donald Trump announced last June that $50 billion worth of Chinese goods would be subject to 25 percent tariffs in a bid to fix the US-Chinese trade deficit. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of trade tariffs. In December, at the G20 summit in Argentina, Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had agreed on a "truce" in their tariff war to allow room for a new trade agreement. The so-called truce is reportedly set to end on March 1.