U.S. officials have reached out to China for new trade talks: sources

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration has reached out to China for a new round of trade talks as it prepares to activate punitive U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Senior U.S. officials led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently sent an invitation to their Chinese counterparts, including Vice Premier Liu He, to hold another bilateral trade meeting.

The timing and location of the proposed meeting were unclear, the people said. Mid-level U.S. and Chinese officials met on Aug. 22 and 23 with no agreements.

A U.S. Treasury spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The invitation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. A meeting among cabinet-level officials could ease market worries over the escalating tariff war that threatens to engulf all trade between the world's two largest economies and raise costs for companies and consumers.

So far, the United States and China have hit $50 billion worth of each others' goods with tariffs in a dispute over U.S. demands that China make sweeping economic policy changes, including ending joint venture and technology transfer policies, rolling back industrial subsidy programs and better protecting American intellectual property.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week said that in addition to preparing tariffs on another $200 billion worth of goods, he had tariffs on another $267 billion worth of goods "ready to on short notice if I want."

U.S. business groups are escalating their fight against Trump's tariffs, with over 60 industry groups launching a coalition to put political pressure on the Trump administration to seek alternatives to tariffs.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Additional reporting by David Lawder and Ginger Gibson; writing by David Lawder; editing by Leslie Adler)