China, US to remain in close contact over trade issues

Heads of both teams discuss issues in latest round of trade talks in Washington

BEIJING: China and the United States will maintain close contact on economic and trade issues in several ways and continue their talks, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

The heads of both consultation teams have discussed the remaining issues, following the latest round of trade talks in Washington, said ministry spokesman Gao Feng.

In the ninth round of high-level consultations, they discussed technology transfers, protection of intellectual property rights, non-tariff measures, the service sector, agriculture, trade imbalances and enforcement mechanisms, and they made new progress, Gao said at a regular news briefing.



The world’s two biggest economies are intensifying their negotiations to iron out differences on certain issues. Gao said the two teams will continue their talks in a bid to implement consensus reached by the countries’ top leaders.

The presidents of China and the US agreed in December to halt the imposition of new tariffs, and instructed their economic teams to advance negotiations toward the removal of all additional tariffs and reach a mutually beneficial deal.

Last year, China-US trade disputes led to substantial tariff hikes on each other’s imports, creating difficulties for companies around the world.



Small businesses in the Asia-Pacific region are more likely to expect a negative effect on their business from trade tensions, according to survey results released on Tuesday by accounting association CPA Australia.

Conditions for small businesses were slightly weaker across the region in 2018, with 2% fewer respondents reporting growth compared with the previous annual survey, said Derek Chan, president of the CPA Australia North China Committee. He cited global trade tensions as the primary reason for a general weakening in confidence.

This article originally appeared on the China Economic Net 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2019.

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