Amid a stalemate in the trade war with the US, China will send a top official to Washington this month to resume the high-level dialogue to resolve the deadlock over President Donald Trump's demand to drastically reduce the USD 375 billion trade deficit.
Wang Shouwen, vice-minister of commerce, will lead a delegation to the US at the end of August to discuss bilateral trade issues with a team led by David Malpass, secretary of treasury for international affairs, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement today.
The initiative to resume talks followed a spate of tit-for-tat tariffs slapped by both the counties.
China, which has a trade surplus of USD 375 billion in its USD 636 billion bilateral trade with US, is trying to retaliate in the same measure though its officials maintain that Beijing is reluctantly following the suit.
China has been reiterating that it opposes unilateralism and trade protectionism of Trump and will not accept any unilateral trade restrictions.
"China welcomes dialogue and communication on the basis of equity, equality and integrity," the official statement added.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He held talks with US Commerce Minister Wilbur Ross in Beijing in June.
The visit of the Chinese delegation headed by the Vice Minister unlike in the past when it was led by Vice Premier Liu comes in the backdrop of the end of annual informal consultative meetings between top Chinese leaders at summer resort Beidaihe.
The leaders of the ruling Communist Party of China meet every year around August to discuss a host of major issues.
Beijing and Washington started the trade war in July this year each imposing 25 per cent tariffs on USD 34 billion of each other's exports.
Washington is due to impose tariffs on another USD 16 billion of Chinese goods on August 23, and China has warned that it will retaliate to that move.
There have been no high-level talks between the two sides since July, but Hong Kong-based the South China Morning Post quoted officials as saying that that the two countries made unofficial contact late last month to explore the possibility of resuming talks.
Liu Weidong, a US affairs expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said a key aspect of Wang's visit was to check whether further formal dialogue between the two nations was possible.
"The main purpose is to see whether both sides are really interested in having further dialogue. If both sides are interested, then there will be follow-up actions," Liu told the Post.
Wang Yiwei, a professor at Renmin University's international studies, said Wang's trip follows the Communist Party's annual closed door meeting at the Beidahe resort, where the trade war was likely to have been one of the main topics of discussion.
"It is possible that China may stress to the US that China will continue reform," he said. "China realises how serious the trade war with the US is and does not want a more serious confrontation," he said.
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