The US wants to start a new round of trade talks with Chinese officials, according to the White House’s top economic adviser.
Larry Kudlow, who heads the White House Economic Council, said on Fox Business that US officials led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have invited Chinese officials to a meeting in the next few weeks to discuss trade.
“There’s some discussions and information that we received that the Chinese government – the top of the Chinese government wished to pursue talks,” Kudlow said. “And so, Secretary Mnuchin, who is the team leader with China, has apparently issued an invitation.”
Speaking to reporters outside the White House Kudlow said that communications between the US and China have “picked up a notch”, which he said is a “positive thing.”
When asked if the Trump administration would like to have additional trade talks with China, Kudlow said: “If they come to the table in a serious way to generate some positive results, yes, of course. That’s what we’ve been asking for months and months.”
Tariffs have been slapped on $50 billion of each other’s goods so far.
US President Donald Trump said last Friday to reporters on Air Force One that in addition to preparing tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods he was “ready to go” on tariffs for another $267 billion in goods “if he wants”.
The Trump Administration has targeted Chinese goods because of unfair trading practices and intellectual property theft.
