Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would be continuing trade talks with their Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Liu He Tuesday evening, indicating that the negotiations were continuing at a high level. He expressed optimism that they were close to a deal.
“I think we are making a lot of progress. Ambassador Lighthizer is doing a terrific job with everybody at USTR,” Mnuchin said in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. “I have a call with him tonight with the vice premier.”
“If we are able to conclude this, these will be the most significant structural changes that have ever occurred,” he said, glancing at his watch. He adding that there were still “significant issues” to be overcome.
It was known that talks between the White House and its counterparts in Beijing are ongoing, though the extent of them and who was involved was unclear.
Mnuchin made the comment when asked why the U.S. was pursuing bilateral talks with Beijing as opposed to multilateral ones. The Treasury secretary said that the multilateral approach had been tried for years by prior administrations to little success and that the direct talks with Beijing were getting the country closer to a deal.
The two countries are trying to wrap up things up, but the talks have dragged on due to issues relating to enforcement of the deal, whether the U.S. can impose tariffs on China for any violations, and whether the U.S. will lift its existing tariffs of 10%-25% on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods.
President Trump predicted last week that a deal, if it was going to happen, would be announced within four weeks. He said there was no point in calling a summit between himself and Chinese President Xi Jinping unless they were ready to make an announcement.
