BEIJING: China said on Wednesday (Jul 23) it will seek to “strengthen cooperation” with the United States at next week’s trade talks in Stockholm.
Washington and Beijing slapped escalating, tit-for-tat levies on each other’s exports earlier this year – reaching triple-digit levels – stalling trade between the world’s two biggest economies as tensions surged.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week for tariff talks.
The third round of high-level negotiations would see a likely postponement of a mid-August deadline for levies to snap back to steeper levels, Bessent told Fox Business.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Wednesday that Beijing hoped the two sides could work together “on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit”.
“We will enhance consensus, reduce misunderstandings, strengthen cooperation and promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of Sino-US relations,” he said.
China’s vice premier will attend the talks in the Swedish capital.
“He Lifeng will go to Sweden from Jul 27 to 30” for the negotiations, a commerce ministry spokesperson said in a Wednesday statement.
After top officials met in Geneva in May, both sides agreed to temporarily lower their tariff levels in a de-escalation set to expire next month.
Officials from the two countries also met in London in June.
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