Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng confirmed that a meeting between Chinese and U.S. delegates was scheduled to take place in January. This is going to be the first face-to-face negotiations between the officials after their respective leaders agreed on a 90-day truce at the sidelines of the G20 Summit which took place in Buenos Aires early this month.
Gao's confirmation was made after a report from Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the discussion, said that U.S. delegation will travel to Beijing on Jan. 7.
Gao, however, did not give specific dates on when the meeting will happen. Nonetheless, observers anticipate good results after the assembly.
The scheduled meeting is an indication that both parties are willing to iron out the escalating trade issues between the two nations. It is also a sign that the Chinese party is respecting deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump. The latter said matters regarding his claims of intellectual property rights and forced transfer of technology should be discussed and consensus should be achieved by March 1. Otherwise, he threatened to proceed with increased tariffs on some $200 billion of Chinese imports which he delayed during this 90-day truce.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has always said that March 1 is a "hard deadline."
Indeed, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notified concerned businesses that they should submit public comments regarding the intellectual property blacklist under the 301 trade policy.
U.S. companies conducting businesses in countries such as China and India are encouraged submitting their public comments until Feb. 7. Foreign governments, meanwhile, are given until Feb 21 to submit theirs.
The office is gathering public comments to help it prepare its annual Special 301 Review to be released on April 26.
In line with this, there will also be a public hearing on Feb. 27. Most recently, public hearing like this had been the venue for companies to air their grievances on the trade war. Company executives were given the opportunity to discuss how their companies were affected by the global trade tensions which were started by President Trump in July this year.
Meanwhile, sources who spoke with Bloomberg said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish will lead the delegation to Beijing. The delegation includes Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs David Malpass.
Lighthizer won't be joining the delegation, the report said.
Reacting on the scheduled talks, Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute said observers should not anticipate a major breakthrough from the meeting. He said there may be no fundamental change on the Chinese side after the discussion.
