US team to visit China for trade talks

Beijing: A US government delegation will visit China next week for the first face-to-face talks since President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart agreed on a temporary truce in the trade war, Beijing said on Friday.The US and China have exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs on more than $300 billion worth of goods in total two-way trade, locking them in a conflict that has begun to eat into profits and contributed to stock market plunges.

Deputy US Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish will lead the Washington delegation and will discuss "implementing the important consensus" reached by Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina last year, China´s commerce ministry said.

Word of the meeting next Monday and Tuesday follows small signs of progress -- and the absence of new threats from Trump -- while the two sides work to ease trade tensions by March 1. Trump initiated the trade war because of complaints over unfair Chinese trade practices -- concerns shared by the European Union, Japan and others.