China Hopes For Positive Outcome Of Upcoming Trade Talks With US - Foreign Ministry

China hopes that the upcoming round of its trade negotiations with the United States will bring positive results, Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2019) China hopes that the upcoming round of its trade negotiations with the United States will bring positive results, Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday.

The next round of the China-US trade negotiations will be held in Beijing on Thursday and Friday. On Monday, the US delegation arrived in Beijing to start preliminary consultations.

"Based on the [results of] recent consultations held in Washington, the parties will continue discussions. We, as well as everyone in the world, are hoping for a positive outcome," Hua said.

The spokeswoman has not confirmed the Sunday media reports saying that US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, may meet in the Mar-a-Lago residence of the US president in Florida in mid-March.

"Recently various reports on the issue have emerged. We paid attention to that ... Concerning the specific meeting, I have no information on the issue," Hua said.

At the same time she pointed out Chinese readiness to maintain close contacts on the trade dispute with the United States, including those at the top level.

China and the United States have been engaged in a trade war since Trump announced last June that $50 billion worth of Chinese goods would be subject to 25 percent tariffs in a bid to fix the US-Chinese trade deficit.

Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of trade tariffs. At the G20 summit in Argentina in December, Trump and Xi agreed on a "truce" in their tariff war to allow room for a new trade agreement. The so-called truce is reportedly set to end on March 1.