Chinese Vice Premier Liu He wrapped his first day of meeting with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. After 90 minutes meeting in the USTR office, they had a dinner together. Ahead of the meeting, Liu said: “We come here this time, under pressure, which shows China’s greatest sincerity, and want to sincerely, confidently, and rationally resolve certain disagreements or differences facing China and the United States. I think there is hope,”
Trump said he got a “beautiful letter” from Chinese President Xi Jinping and they’ “probably” speak by phone. Trump reiterated his hard line and said “Our alternative is an excellent one, it’s an alternative I’ve spoken about for years. We’ve taken well over $100 billion from China in a year.”
For now, no phone call has been made yet, nor scheduled. White House just noted that the negotiations will continue on Friday morning in Washington. Meanwhile, the tariffs on USD 200B of Chinese imports will be raised from 10% to 25% at 12:01am EDT (0401 GMT) today. China’s retaliations are expected to follow soon. And, the US has also started the paperwork to impose 25% tariffs on extra USD 325B in untaxed Chinese goods.
