Trade talks between the U.S. and China failed to produce any visible sign of progress, reducing the prospects of a deal soon, people closely tracking the talks said.
The two sides largely repeated talking points during the discussions, these people said. The Chinese side seemed unready to offer new ways to address the Trump administration’s concerns that the bilateral trade deficit was too steep and that Beijing was coercing U.S. companies into transferring technology to Chinese partners, they said.
The two sides “exchanged views on how to achieve fairness, balance, and reciprocity in the economic relationship, including by addressing structural issues in China,” the White House said, adding that the U.S. side would brief more-senior officials on the results.
The statement was significant for what it didn’t say as well, people said after the talks. There was no discussion of follow-up talks or any accomplishments.
“To get a positive result from these engagements,” the Chinese must address the issues raised by the U.S., a senior U.S. official familiar with the negotiations said. “We haven’t seen that yet.”
The midlevel talks, headed by U.S. Treasury Undersecretary David Malpass and Chinese Commerce Vice Minister Wang Shouwen, were designed to kick-start higher-level discussions that could end the trade impasse. If all went well, a deal could be completed in November after the U.S. election, when President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping could meet at already planned multilateral summits.
The poor results raise questions about that timeline, U.S. officials said. The U.S. side was already sharply divided between those pushing for a deal, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and those who wanted to hold off on talks until the U.S. increased the pressure on Beijing by applying more tariffs. For now, the hard-liners seem to have the upper hand in the White House.
And yet, it is far from clear the Chinese were prepared to make offers that would satisfy either side of the trade divide in the U.S. administration. In recent meetings with foreign business leaders, Chinese Vice Minister Liu He, who has been leading the Chinese negotiating team, laid out his views of the U.S. requests of China, people briefed on the talks said. They said Mr. Liu seemed to have a clear understanding of U.S. demands.
