Exclusive | Beijing likely to cancel trade war talks after Donald Trump ups the ante with tariffs on US$200 billion of goods
Plans to send vice-premier Liu He to Washington for negotiations are being reviewed after the US President escalated the dispute
China is likely to cancel its tentative plans to send President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser to Washington after his US counterpart Donald Trump announced new tariffs on US$200 billion worth of Chinese products, a government source in Beijing said on Tuesday.
According to the source, who declined to be identified as the plans have not been made public, China is reviewing its earlier plans to send a delegation, headed by Vice-Premier Liu He, to Washington next week.
One precondition for the talks was that the Americans would show sufficient goodwill but the US president’s decision on Monday to escalate the trade war by slapping 10 per cent tariffs on almost half of all Chinese exports might have scuppered the talks, the source added, although a final decision has yet to be made.
A US business representative in China said Trump’s latest threat would be seen in China as “holding a gun to its head”.
“If the vice-premier does go to the US, we can reasonably suspect he has a reasonable offer, but at this point, I would think the likelihood is low,” the representative said.