Trade talks to continue next week in Washington
US and Chinese officials will meet next week in Washington to continue talks on trade in an attempt to secure a final deal that will put an end to the current tensions.
In a statement, White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, said the Trump administration believed there had been many positive developments during the past week’s meetings, but that “additional” progress needed to be made before the 1 March deadline for the US to raise its tariffs on Chinese goods.
At the end of 2018, the leaders of both countries agreed to put on a hold their reciprocal tariffs until March 2019.
But President Donald Trump had vowed that if a trade deal had not been secured by then, America's 10% tariffs on $200bn-worth of imported Chinese goods would be hiked to 25%.
Trump said the deadline could be extended by 60 days if talks were ongoing and progress was being made, which was apparently the case last week, according to US officials.
"We feel that we have to make headway on some very, very important and very difficult issues," said top US trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer said on Friday.
President Xi Jinping said that next week’s talks would "continue to work hard to promote a mutually beneficial and win-win agreement.”
Global markets are still waiting for the promised trade deal and are getting impatient. said ThinkMarkets analyst Naeem Aslam on Friday.
“The fact is that if both Washington and Beijing continue to disappoint the markets in this manner, market participants will have no option but to radiate their anger".
NOT AS ROSY AS IT SEEMS
One of the key issues in the trade war is the US’s claim that China is engaged in technology theft and spying and that there is not a level playing field for American companies entering the Chinese market.
Recent technological progress by the Chinese military technology were also a cause for concern.
That had already led the US to raise its defence spending in 2018 as it moved to stay ahead of Chinese and Russian advances in military technology, the Institute for Security Studies said on Friday.
The report claimed that Trump would likely urge European countries to spend more on defence at a NATO conference in April and that European powers would have to find an extra $102bn to meet his demands.
In 2018, worldwide outlays on weapons and defense grew by 1.8% to reach over $1.67trn.