China's top trade negotiator will go to US for talks

China on Tuesday said it will send its top trade negotiator Li Hu to the US for talks despite Washington's breaking the truce amid the ongoing trade war by deciding to increase tariffs on the Chinese imports worth $200 billion.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry said Liu will be in Washington on Thursday and Friday as scheduled to hold talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said slapping tariffs on each other was no solution to the on-going trade spat.

"China hopes that the US will work with Beijing to resolve each other's concerns," Ministry's spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a press briefing.

China was said to be having second thoughts on its scheduled talks with the US this week after Trump announced that his administration would hike the tariffs from 10 per cent to 25 per cent on Chinese imports worth $200 billion.

The move is being described as a blow to the ongoing parleys between the two largest economies to end their trade war.

Beijing and Washington have been locked in a bruising trade war since July last year after Trump slapped an additional 25 per cent on an initial $50 billion of Chinese goods.

Trump followed it through with another 10 per cent on an additional $200 billion in products in September.

It is the levies imposed in September last year that Trump has now threatened to increase to 25 per cent from Friday.

This may scuttle the progress both sides have claimed to make in preventing the spat to worsen, a scenario that could impede the world's economic recovery.

--IANS

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