US and China begin fresh talks to end trade war

Washington: In a bid to end their ongoing trade war, the United States and China on Thursday began a fresh round of high-level talks in Washington to outline six memorandums of understanding on challenging structural issues including forced technology transfer and cybertheft.

The Chinese delegation is led by Vice- Premier Liu He, while US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin chaired the talks on behalf of the US.

During the two-day talks, China is also expected to announce a large purchase of US agricultural and energy products, reported SCMP.

Beijing will propose buying an additional US$30 billion annually of American farm products such as soybeans, corn and wheat.

The previous round of talks took place in Beijing last week.

It is important for these talks to reach certain agreements as the truce period of 90 days, mutually decided by United States President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping, is about to end on March 1.

Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on the US$ 200 billion of Chinese products from 10 per cent to 25 per cent. However, on Tuesday, Trump suggested that he might extend the March 1 deadline citing that the talks are going “very well”.

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]