Top trade negotiators from the US and China began their talks in "good spirits" here on Thursday amid the optimism generated by President Donald Trump's remarks about extending the March 1 deadline for the world's two largest economies to reach a trade deal.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Liu He met in Beijing to take the talks forward from their recent meeting in Washington on the topics of trade balance, technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), non-tariff barriers, service sector, agriculture and enforcement mechanism.
Besides Lighthizer, described as a hardliner on China by the Chinese media, the US team also included Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and David Malpass, a Treasury undersecretary who is Trump's nominee for World Bank president.
Trump is pushing China to reduce the USD 375 billion trade deficit and protection of intellectual property rights and more access to Chinese markets. He has already increased the tariffs on over USD 250 billion worth of Chinese exports to the US and threatened to extend tariffs on USD 200 billion worth of Chinese imports to 25 per cent.
Chinese President Xi Jinping was expected to meet the US delegation on Friday while the talks was expected to go into the rest of the week, according to the official media here.
Xi's meeting with the US delegation was stated to be a reciprocal move as Trump had met the Chinese team when it visited Washington early this month.
Trump's comments on Tuesday stating that while he is not inclined to extend the deadline, he might let it "slide for a little while" if talks go well has created a more relaxed atmosphere for the talks.
"Smiling faces, interesting photos China, US kick off new trade talks in good spirits," state-run Global Times tabloid headlined its story on the commencement of talks.
"The mood has changed for the extremely complicated and often tense negotiations between China and the US over their trade issues, or so it seems, judging from photos and other details emerging from the latest round of talks," it said.
Parrying questions on the likely outcome of the talks, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the top trade negotiators from the US and China be given the best convenience to focus on their job for the benefit of both countries and the global economy.
"The best thing we could do now is to let the negotiators concentrate on their negotiations," she said when asked about the possible outcome of the talks.
All eyes are on the ongoing trade talks, as its results are linked to the whole world's economic growth and stability, Hua said.
"You'll get a better answer after the conclusion of the high-level China-US trade talks," Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said when asked whether the reported news that Trump administration plans to add 60 days to the current China tariff deadline is true or not.
As the talks began the new official data said China's export growth to the US slowed in January compared with December, while the imports slide widened, indicating a bleak trade picture between the two economies.
China's imports from the US edged down by 38.6 per cent year-on-year to USD 9.4 billion in January, compared with a 2.3 per cent yearly decline in December, Global Times reported.
In terms of exports, China exported USD 279.4 billion-yuan worth of goods to the US in January, up by 1.9 per cent year-on-year, but slowing from the 8.6 per cent growth seen in the previous month, according to data revealed by the General Administration of Customs on Thursday.
China's January trade surplus with the US widened by 31.2 per cent to hit 188.4 billion yuan, according to the data.
The sliding exports growth and widening imports decline not only show that the uncertainties of the China-US trade situation is forcing the market to take risk aversion measures, but also reflects that China's dependence on US trade is sliding, Bai Ming, deputy director of the MOFCOM's International Market Research Institute, told the daily.
According to Bai, the China-US trade cooperation framework has not been irreparably damaged so far.
"But if there's no solution to the two countries' trade row in the near future, there's a possibility that the China-US trade platform and industrial chain could be harmed, which will hurt the bilateral trade relations to a greater extent than at present," he said.
The January data also pointed out that China's exports and imports both rose at a faster-than-expected rate in January.
Total goods trade rose 8.7 per cent year-on-year in January to 2.73 trillion yuan (USD 395.98 billion), the General Administration of Customs data said.
Exports rose 13.9 per cent year-on-year to 1.5 trillion-yuan last month, while imports grew 2.9 per cent to 1.23 trillion yuan, data showed.
The increase in exports was significantly higher than analyst forecast, partly driven by front-loading by exporters before the Spring Festival, which fell at the beginning of February as compared with the end of February last year, China Merchants Securities said in a research note, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Amid the ongoing trade war, China's economy sank to a 28-year low in 2018 slowing down to 6.6 per cent year-on-year. It was the lowest growth since 1990.
