U.S., China envoys hold talks before Trump tariff decision

BEIJING >> U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators are meeting this week for talks President Donald Trump says will help decide whether he escalates a technology dispute by going ahead with a March 2 tariff hike on $200 billion of imports from China.

Two days of talks starting Thursday allow too little time to resolve the war over Beijing’s technology ambitions that threatens to drag on weakening global economic growth, businesspeople and economists say. They believe China’s goal is to make enough progress to persuade Trump to extend his deadline.

There are few signs of movement on the thorniest issue: Washington’s demand that Beijing scale back its efforts to nurture world leaders in robotics and other technologies. China’s trading partners say the state support for industries violates Beijing’s market-opening obligations and some American officials worry they might erode U.S. industrial leadership.

This week, Beijing wants “to see the threat of additional tariff imposition being removed for as long as possible,” with minimal conditions attached, said Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics.

Trump’s December agreement to postpone more tariff hikes while the two sides negotiate expires March 1. The following day, a 10 percent tariff imposed in July on $200 billion of Chinese imports would rise to 25 percent.

On Tuesday, Trump said while he is not inclined to extend the March 2 deadline, he might let it “slide for a little while” if talks go well. Earlier, the White House called March 2 a “hard deadline.”

Companies on both sides have been battered by Washington’s tariffs and retaliatory duties imposed by the government of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The stakes are rising as global economic growth cools.

Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese goods over complaints Beijing steals or pressures companies to hand over technology.