Next round of US-China trade talks to take place on Feb 21-22

The seventh round of trade talks between China and the United States is slated to take place in Washington later this week the Chinese Ministry of Commerce confirmed on Tuesday.

The talks between the two nations will be held on February 21 and 22.

Sputnik quoted the Chinese Ministry as stating that the trade negotiations will be attended by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, while the US delegation will be headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

During the previous round of trade negotiations between the US and China that took place on February 14-15, the two countries managed to reach some progress during the talks but still had to do "much work", the White House said in a statement.

The ministerial meetings are conducted in order to enhance efforts to reach a deal before increased tariffs are slapped on Chinese imports by the US. If the deal is confirmed, officials will look forward to confirming the next proposed China-US summit anytime soon in March, sources said.

Previously, ministerial meetings were held in January in Washington, where US President Donald Trump had pushed for a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Until now, Beijing has proposed to purchase larger quantities of farm produce from the US during the ministerial-level talks.

The meetings are a part of the agreement of a 'temporary truce' reached by Trump and Xi Jinping during their dinner on December 1 on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina.