Talks to be resumed on Sino-US trade

Wang Shouwen, vice-minister of commerce and China's deputy international trade representative

At the last official round of talks in early June, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met with Vice-Premier Liu He in Beijing.

Experts said Wang's visit to the US is expected to be helpful not only in reducing misunderstanding between the two governments but also in offering hope for progress in lessening the friction that has set global markets on edge.

Li Yong, deputy director of the China Association of International Trade Expert Committee, said conducting the vice-ministerial level meeting means the two sides will talk about many specific issues, such as how to increase imports from each other's markets in different sectors and build a solid foundation for higher-level official meetings.

"As the bilateral trade friction has affected global value and supply chains, as well as many countries' financial markets, it is time for both sides to talk about what they can offer to temporarily avoid a global economic slowdown and an escalation of the trade war," he said.

Makoto Sengoku, a market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute, told AFP: "It is hard to tell how the talks will go, but it's a positive signal that the two countries are looking for some compromise plan. If they were determined to fight it out, they wouldn't meet."

US trade policy toward China has been fairly self-contradictory, which reflects the gap of interests between different government branches, said Dong Yan, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"As you can see from the previous talks, the US Treasury Department still wanted a negotiated settlement because it sought a sustainable China-US economic relationship, while the Office of the US Trade Representative has been playing tougher with Chinese shipments," she said.

Dong said there have been some impacts on the real economy in the United States as tariffs have been enacted in the past two months. This has caused opinion disparities among different government departments, multinational companies and business groups within the US, she said.