US-China trade talks end with no breakthrough

Washington: US and Chinese negotiators ended two days of meetings without breaking a deadlock over trade that has unnerved financial markets and disrupted global commerce.

The delegations “exchanged views on how to achieve fairness, balance and reciprocity in the economic relationship,” Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement. She did not mention further talks.

A Chinese Commerce Ministry statement said the talks were “constructive and frank” but gave no details. It said the two sides would “maintain contact.” 

The dispute over China’s high-tech industrial policy escalated yesterday as the Trump administration and Beijing imposed taxes on an additional USD 16 billion of each other’s goods. 

The administration last month had slapped tariffs on an initial USD 34 billion in Chinese products, and Beijing responded in kind.

The Trump team is preparing tariffs on USD 200 billion more of Chinese products, and China has vowed to counterpunch by targeting USD 60 billion in American goods.

The US-China talks this week were the first since discussions in June failed to produce any agreement.