China seeks US tariff cuts ahead of Trump-Xi summit

China and the United States are expected to reach a tariff agreement based on lowering import taxes soon ahead of a highly anticipated summit between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping this September.

According to Commerce Ministry spokesperson Huang Ling, the negotiators are trying to implement tariff reductions on $30 billion of goods at an early date.

However, she did not disclose the definite timeline of agreement which Ling hoped about reaching with Washington. The announcement comes after it is widely expected that leaders of both countries could meet in two weeks.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are slated to hold their third face-to-face summit of the past year in Washington on September 24.

Without providing further details, officials from both nations describe the upcoming meeting as an effort to stabilize bilateral ties amidst intense strategic competition between the world’s two largest economies.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Thursday, “the leaders’ diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China-U.S. relations."

Last May, both leaders met in Beijing and during the talks they agreed to launch a US-China Board of Trade aimed at managing trade between two nations along with a parallel Board of Investment.

The agreement was seen as a truce between countries’ trade war initiated by Trump’s imposed tariffs on Chinese imports. Later China also retaliated.

“Trade will be front and center at the summit,” Barclays Bank said in a research note this week on the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting.

However, the truce on tariff hikes is going to expire on November 10. But as per analysis, the prospects of reaching broad trade deals are dimmed and targeted tariff reductions are more likely.