WASHINGTON • US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said he and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer may travel to Beijing for trade negotiations if talks by phone this week are productive.
"We expect to have another principal-level call this week, and to the extent we make significant progress, I think there's a good chance we'll go there later," Mr Mnuchin told a Monday press briefing at the White House.
The planned phone call would be the second time the top trade negotiators have spoken since US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping called a truce in their year-long trade war during the Group of 20 (G-20) meeting at the end of last month.
The leaders agreed to restart talks for a trade deal - which had collapsed in May - but they gave no concrete timeframe to reach a deal.
"I believe you know that the two teams have been in contact," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters in Beijing yesterday, declining to elaborate on when they might speak by phone or meet in person.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Trump indicated that US tariffs on China were having their intended impact by squeezing the Chinese economy, tweeting: "The United States tariffs are having a major effect on companies wanting to leave China for non-tariffed countries. This is why China wants to make a deal."
Mr Trump's comments came hours after China released figures showing growth in the world's second-largest economy had slowed to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter, the weakest pace since at least 1992, when the country began collecting the data.
But China rejected the suggestion, saying this was "totally misleading" and that both countries wanted an agreement.
Mr Geng said China's first-half pace was a "not bad performance", considering global economic uncertainty and slowing world growth, and was in line with outside expectations. China's stable growth was good for the world and also the US economy, he added.
Mr Trump had complained last week that China was not following through on a promise that Mr Xi made at the G-20 meeting to buy more US farming products.
China, for its part, has since said it is considering buying more US soya beans, corn and pork as a cooperative gesture, but that total volumes will depend on the progress of the trade talks.
Despite the trade row, Mr Trump said Mr Xi is a friend of his. "I used to say he's a good friend of mine, probably not quite as close now," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
"But I have to be for our country. He's for China and I'm for the USA, and that's the way it's gotta be."
Mr Mnuchin said he is "hopeful" Congress will approve the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mr Trump said on Monday that if Democrats block the USMCA, he will resort to "Plan B", without elaborating.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
