Chinese counter rumors on trade

Official says talks with U.S. still on

BEIJING — China is working to resolve conflicts with Washington over trade, a Commerce Ministry official said Thursday, dismissing speculation that the talks might be in trouble as inaccurate “rumors.”

Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said he had no new information to release. But he said China was committed to working toward an agreement.

“China is willing to address core concerns together with the U.S. on a basis of equality and mutual respect, and to work to conclude our discussions on the first phase” of a trade deal, Gao said at a weekly briefing.

“This will benefit China, the U.S. and the world,” Gao said.

President Donald Trump had hoped to sign a preliminary agreement with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at a regional economic summit in Chile in mid-November that was canceled because of protests. Prospects for the two leaders to meet and sign a deal soon are uncertain.

Financial markets have swung between elation

and gloom in recent days as conflicting reports over the talks swirled. Some have cited officials saying they believe a deal is likely by the year’s end, while others have expressed skepticism.

Gao described such reports as “outside rumors that are not at all reliable.”

On Wednesday, China’s chief trade negotiator indicated he was “cautiously optimistic” about reaching a phase one deal with the U.S.

Vice Premier Liu He made the comments in a speech Wednesday in Beijing ahead of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, according to people who attended the dinner and asked not to be identified. He also has invited his U.S. counterpart, Robert Lighthizer, to travel to China for talks this month, but the invitation hasn’t yet been accepted, people familiar with the matter said.

Speaking Thursday at the forum, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said the U.S. and China were in the “foothills of a Cold War,” and warned that the conflict could be worse than World War I if left to run unconstrained. Later in the day, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson warned of the perils of decoupling the world’s two largest economies.

President Donald Trump began imposing punitive tariffs

on Chinese exports nearly 18 months ago, citing trade and technology policies that he says violate Beijing’s market-opening commitments and are unfair.

Since then, tariffs have been raised by both sides on billions of dollars’ worth of each other’s exports, squeezing farmers and manufacturers. A fresh set of tariffs is set to take effect Dec. 15 on about $160 billion of Chinese exports to the U.S., including smartphones, laptops and other consumer goods.

Earlier this week Trump indicated that he was prepared to go ahead with the additional tariff increases if he does not get a deal with China that he likes.

The approval this week of a U.S. congressional resolution expressing support for human rights in Hong Kong after months of increasingly violent political protests drew an angry response from China’s Foreign Ministry.

It also rattled financial markets: markets fell Thursday for a second-straight day in most regional markets after losses overnight on Wall Street.

China has urged Trump not to sign the legislation, which passed both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate almost unanimously.