China said it is evaluating U.S. overtures to initiate trade negotiations, potentially paving the way for the world’s two largest economies to start talks to resolve a trade war that has rumbled financial markets and cast a pall on global economic activity.
Senior U.S. officials have reached out recently “through relevant parties multiple times,” hoping to start negotiations with China on tariffs, a spokesperson for the commerce ministry said in a statement Friday.
While assessing the possibility of starting any negotiations, Chinese authorities reiterated Beijing’s request for the U.S. to remove all unilateral tariffs. Failure to do so would indicate “an outright lack of sincerity” from Washington and “further compromise mutual trust,” according to a CNBC translation.
“If the U.S. wants to talk, it should show its sincerity and be prepared to correct its wrong practices and cancel the unilateral tariffs,” according to the statement.
U.S. President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs of 145% on imported Chinese goods this year, prompting China to impose retaliatory levies of 125%. So far, both sides have sought to blunt the economic impact of tariffs by granting exemptions on certain critical products.
Chinese offshore yuan strengthened 0.14% to 7.2665 against the U.S. dollar following the statement. While China’s onshore markets are closed for a holiday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumped 1.6%.
The latest comments from Beijing follow a flurry of conflicting statements from the Trump administration and Chinese leadership on whether talks were underway, with both sides wanting to avoid being seen as the first to back down.
Separately, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News’ Hannity Program that the “Chinese want to meet and talk,” according to Reuters, while indicating that such talks will come up soon.
©CNBC