) China and the United States have established a framework for settling trade issues of mutual concern, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Thursday in a statement on the latest round of bilateral talks
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th January, 2019) China and the United States have established a framework for settling trade issues of mutual concern, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Thursday in a statement on the latest round of bilateral talks.
The vice ministerial-level talks were held in the Chinese capital from Monday to Wednesday.
"The sides have carried out a substantial and thorough exchange of opinions on trade and structural issues concerning both sides. They have boosted the level of mutual understanding, and have laid the basis for settling issues of mutual interest," the statement read.
The negotiators have agreed to maintain close contact, the ministry specified.
In its Wednesday statement, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said that the talks had focused on ways to achieve fairness, reciprocity, and balance in the US-Chinese trade relations, with an emphasis on China's pledge to purchase more US goods to reduce tensions.
In December 2018, US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, agreed during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina to call a truce in their escalating trade war, which was sparked back in June. Xi promised to fix the trade imbalance with the United States by starting to purchase US agricultural products, while Trump agreed to suspend his plans to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products from 10 percent to 25 percent while the countries attempt to negotiate a compromise on several issues during the trade talks.
