BEIJING (AP) — Representatives from Beijing and Washington began their economic and trade talks in Paris on Sunday, paving the way for U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in about two weeks.
The delegations, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, convened in the French capital in the morning, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported. The White House has said that Trump will travel to China from March 31 to April 2, though Beijing has not officially confirmed it.
Bessent said on Thursday that his team will continue to deliver results that put America’s farmers, workers and businesses first. The U.S. Treasury Department said Bessent will meet He on Sunday and Monday.
China’s commerce ministry said Friday the two sides are set to discuss “trade and economic issues of mutual concern.”
Trump’s visit to China will be the first for a U.S. president since he went in his first term in 2017. It will come five months after the two leaders met in the South Korean city of Busan and agreed to a one-year truce in a trade war that temporarily saw tit-for-tat tariffs soar to triple digits before the two sides climbed down.
Still, trade remains a source of tensions. The commerce ministry hit back against the Trump administration’s new trade investigation into 16 trading partners, which included China. The investigation — which came after a Supreme Court ruling struck down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs that were imposed last year — could pave the way for new tariffs.
China said Monday that it had already made representations over concerns about the new investigation to the U.S. “It’s a mistake on top of a mistake, that severely harms the global supply chain’s safety and stability,
US-China trade talks open in Paris, paving the way for Trump-Xi summit
