US-China trade talks break up without breakthrough
WASHINGTON — U.S. and Chinese officials on Wednesday wrapped up high-level talks without announcing any breakthroughs on the contentious economic issues that divide them.
The daylong talks at the Treasury Department began with prickly comments from both sides. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said the world’s two biggest economies need to co-operate and warned that “confrontation will immediately damage the interests of both.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called for Beijing to provide more access to U.S. firms and to help reduce America’s trade deficit with China. He blamed the trade gap — $347 billion in goods last year — on “Chinese government intervention in its economy.”
After taking office, the Trump administration reached an agreement with China to continue the high-level meetings that were begun in the George W. Bush administration and continued in the Obama administration.