China’s Ministry of Commerce promoted progress in trade talks with the United States Sunday and the hope of future meetings.
The two countries held two vice ministerial-level calls this week. Reuters reported Friday’s call involved talk of trade imbalances and intellectual property protections according to China’s Ministry of Commerce — protections President Donald Trump has been calling for over months of U.S.-China trade talks.
The Chinese ministry said Sunday the two sides had a “deep exchange of views” over the two issues and “made new progress.” The report added that the two sides began making plans for future calls and visits.
The other call occurred Wednesday, but details were not provided beyond the subject matter: trade and economics.
President Trump told Breitbart News in October that China’s economy was suffering in the wake of U.S. trade tariffs levied on China, and they weren’t ready to negotiate yet. “China wants to make a deal. China would love to make a deal,” Trump said as he said China has made too much for too long off of the United States, “What they’ve done to our country is take out anywhere from $300 billion to $500 billion a year. Rebuilt China.”
He stressed in the October comments, his respect for Chinese President Xi Jinping, adding, “They are not doing well. If you look at their economy, the Chinese economy is not doing well. And we’re doing very well. We’re doing better than we’ve ever done.”
Trump and Xi talked trade on a call ahead of a G20 meeting in Argentina. President Trump had refused to relent on levying tariffs on hundreds of billions of Chinese goods imported to the United States over China’s unfair trading practices including theft on U.S. intellectual property. China has issued retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. appearing to take aim at industries that would cause the most pain to the U.S. and President Trump’s support.
The two presidents agreed to a temporary trade truce at their G20 meeting. The U.S. agreed to relent on plans for tariffs increases and China agreed to buy more U.S. goods and enter 90 days of trade talks.
President Trump and his trade team have been adamant that China must stop “unfair” trading practices and halt the theft of U.S. intellectual property. Trump has also called for changes in the trade imbalance between the two nations. The U.S. president has emphasized again and again the need for “reciprocal” trade.
Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook.