D.C.-based trade meetings with China’s top economic official are still on for the end of the month, a White House official said, refuting reports Tuesday they were called off.
“There’s no cancellations, none. zero. Let me just try to put that to rest,” National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said as he briefed reporters at the White House late Tuesday. Kudlow was addressing an afternoon report that the meetings were off.
CNBC cited “a source familiar with the situation,” reporting Tuesday, “The White House rejected a trade planning meeting with Chinese counterparts this week due to outstanding disagreements between the two sides over the enforcement of intellectual property rules.”
Kudlow said at Tuesday’s impromptu briefing that the meeting with Vice Premier Liu was still on and set to take place near the end of January.
The CNBC ran the headline, “US cancels trade planning meeting with China, source says” despite a comment from the White House cited in the story that stated the meeting was still on: “the teams remain in touch in preparation for high level talks with Vice Premier Liu He at the end of this month.”
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on December 1 at the G20 summit in Argentina where they agreed to a temporary tariff truce and a 90-day period of focused trade talks. China has agreed to increase purchases of U.S. commodities the country has hit with retaliatory tariffs.
Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook.
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