Trade representatives from China and the United States had a “candid” conversation on Thursday.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said this after the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Liu He and US trade envoy Katherine Tai spoke online. It was the first talk about the trade deal between the two superpowers since the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency.
Under Donald Trump, the US and China fought a trade war that ended in a limited trade deal. The idea was that a so-called second phase deal would follow. However, Tai has already said that she is looking at whether China will adhere to the earlier agreement. The Asian country would, among other things, buy $ 200 billion worth of US goods in 2020 and 2021, but according to experts, China is nowhere near reaching that.
A US statement on the virtual meeting reports that Tai has explained the fundamentals of the Biden administration’s policies with his focus on the employee’s position. The trade envoy is also said to have expressed concerns about some issues.
Recently, trade has been one of the topics of least tension between Washington and Beijing. There were tensions over issues such as the oppression of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province, the situation around Taiwan with China taking an increasingly threatening stance, and China’s claim to large parts of the South China Sea in defiance of international maritime treaties.
The coronavirus is also a tricky issue. The US government is keeping open the possibility that this may have escaped from a laboratory and has called on China to participate in an international investigation into the virus’s origin.
