Liu He, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Premier of the State Council and Chinese representative of the China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, will have a new round of high-level trade talks with the US Trade Representative Lighthizer and Financial Minister Mnuchin in Beijing from February 14 to 15, according to the official website of the Ministry of Commerce on February 9. Based on the recent Washington talks, the two sides will further discuss issues of common concern. The US team will arrive in Beijing ahead of schedule on February 11.
According to Xinhua, Liu He led the Chinese team for trade talks with the US team led by the US Trade Representative Lighthizer in Washington from January 30 to 31. Guided by the important consensus reached at the meeting between the two heads of state in Argentina, the two sides discussed issues like trade balance, technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, the service sector, agriculture, implementation mechanism and China's concerns, in a frank, concrete and constructive way and made important progress.
Both sides have attached great importance to intellectual property protection and technology transfer and agreed to further strengthen cooperation. Since creating a fair competitive market environment is in line with the general direction of China's reform and opening-up, China will surely respond to the concerns of the United States.
The two sides have agreed to take effective measures to promote trade balance. China will expand imports of agricultural production (4.890, 0.04, 0.82%), energy products, manufactured goods and service to facilitate a high-quality economic development and meet people's needs for a better life.
The two sides exchanged views on China's specific concerns, and the United States will respond to China's concerns seriously.
The two sides have agreed that it is important to establish an effective two-way mechanism for implementation, which will help ensure the agreed measures take real effect. The two sides have reached consensus on principles and basic framework which will be further improved in the future.
February 11, 2019
Source: Beijing Business Today
