China agrees to buy more U.S. goods

WASHINGTON — Justended U.S.-China trade talks produced a commitment by Beijing to “significantly increase” its purchases of Americans goods and services, according to a joint statement yesterday from the rival economic powers trying to lower trade tensions.

They also agreed on “meaningful increases” in U.S. exports of agriculture and energy products, and greater efforts to increase trade in manufactured goods and services.

The statement, however, provided no dollar amounts on how much China might boost its purchases of American products.

The statement also was silent on whether the talks had made progress in easing the trade standoff between the world’s two biggest economies. Washington and Beijing have threatened to impose billions of dollars in punitive tariffs on each other.

The statement said they did agree on the need for “effective measures” to reduce America’s trade deficit, and to strengthen cooperation on protecting intellectual property. The statement said the United States would send a team to China to work out further details.

One of the Trump administration’s goals has been to get China to take steps that would lower America’s goods trade deficit with China by at least $200 billion by the end of 2020.

“There was a consensus on taking effective measures to substantially reduce the United States trade deficit in goods with China,” the joint statement said.

The two days of talks were led on the Chinese side by Vice Premier Lie He and on the American side by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The U.S. delegation included Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.