Washington (United States) (AFP) – Top economic officials from the United States and China are set to convene in Paris, the Treasury Department said Thursday, less than three weeks before President Donald Trump’s expected summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in France on March 15 and 16, the department said. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will also attend the talks, his office confirmed.
“Thanks to the bonds of mutual respect between President Trump and President Xi, the trade and economic dialogue between the United States and China is moving forward,” Bessent said in a statement. Greer said separately that the Trump administration would “continue to seek fairness and stability” in bilateral ties by reviewing the implementation of Beijing’s recent commitments. Among other issues, Beijing last year agreed to purchase US soybeans after a halt in Chinese orders as a trade dispute deepened.
The gathering of Bessent, Greer, and He is widely expected to set the stage for Trump’s visit to China, where he is set to meet Xi. Washington has announced that Trump will visit China from March 31 to April 2, though Beijing has yet to confirm those dates, in line with its usual practice. The Paris talks are likely meant to hammer out trade and economic achievements to be announced at the leaders’ summit, Fudan University professor Wu Xinbo told AFP.
But they come after a turbulent year in US-China economic ties since Trump returned to the presidency. Greer announced new trade investigations Wednesday into excess industrial capacity, targeting China and other key partners. The move opens the door to new penalties like tariffs, prompting Beijing’s criticism earlier Thursday of “political manipulation.”
– ‘Time for ambition’ –
In April last year, Washington and Beijing engaged in an escalating tariffs war as China pushed back against Trump’s sweeping duties against trading partners. This brought their tariffs on each other’s exports to triple-digit levels, forcing trade to a halt before both sides eased tensions. At their last meeting, in October in South Korea, Trump and Xi agreed on a year-long trade truce.
US-China Business Council president Sean Stein said he believed that Trump’s visit to China was a “time for ambition” to address “longstanding issues with the business climate in China.” But he warned that invitations to join the US delegation have yet to go out to executives, urging for this to happen soon. Wu of Fudan University said this could take place after US-China talks in Europe, if officials wanted to avoid complications from involving business leaders too soon in the process.
For now, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has sounded an optimistic note. “This year is indeed a big year for China-US relations,” Wang told a press conference on Sunday. Even though Washington and Beijing “cannot change each other,” he said, “we can change the way we interact with each other.” In his Thursday statement, Bessent vowed to “deliver results that put America’s farmers, workers and businesses first.”
© 2024 AFP
