Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that the latest round of trade talks between the White House and China would likely begin next month. He cautioned, however, that the details were still being ironed out.
“We’re in the process of confirming the logistics of several meetings and we’re determined to make sure that we use the time wisely, to try to resolve this,” Mnuchin told Bloomberg. “We expect there will be meetings in January.”
The talks have been complicated by the arrest of a senior executive of the Chinese telecom company Huawei Technologies Co., in Canada earlier this month on U.S. fraud charges. China has criticized the arrest. The U.S., which has previously alleged the company has violated sanctions against Iran, has said that the arrest is an unrelated matter and should remain that way.
“We’ve been very clear and China understands that these are separate tracks,’’ Mnuchin said.
Both sides are under pressure to reach a deal and end their ongoing trade war. The Trump administration has set a March 1 as the deadline for a deal, after which it will hike tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods to 25 percent, up from 10 percent. China has similarly lifted its 25 percent tariffs on U.S. auto imports, but said they are scheduled to return on March 31.
