US and China welcome ‘constructive’ trade talks after delay
The US and China have welcomed a “constructive” round of talks over a phase one trade deal after discussions were delayed earlier this month.
In a call between US trade representative Robert Lighthitzer, US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and Chinese vice premier Liu He, the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to the deal.
“Both sides see progress and are committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure the success of the agreement,” the US trade representative’s office said in a statement.
The call had originally been scheduled for 15 August — six months after the trade deal was launched.
But discussions were pushed back by US President Donald Trump, who last week said: “I don’t want to deal with them now”.
In January the two countries reached a phase one agreement which called for increased Chinese purchases of US goods and greater access to the Chinese financial market.
The successful round of talks will be a welcome boost for diplomatic relations between the world’s two largest economies amid growing tensions over a range of issues.
The two sides have exchanged sanctions and salvos over a new national security law in Hong Kong, the Covid-19 pandemic and Chinese technology firm TikTok.
The US president has increased the pressure on Chinese tech firms, having signed executive orders to the ban TikTok and social media platform WeChat.
This week TikTok’s owner ByteDance launched a legal challenge against Trump, arguing that the decision was motivated by politics and not national security.
Overnight Asian stocks approached a two-year high as optimism surrounding the trade talks helped to lift shares.
MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 018 per cent, trading just below a two-year high, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.5 per cent.
Markets in Hong Kong and China bucked the regional trend, with the Hang Sang down 0.7 per cent in afternoon trading while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.19 per cent.
It comes after Hong Kong documented the first case of someone being reinfected with coronavirus.
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong confirmed that a man, who was discharged from hospital having recovered from the virus, tested positive again after returning from Spain on 15 August.
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