U.S. NEGOTIATORS WILL HEAD TO CHINA MONDAY FOR LONG-AWAITED FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS.

FACE-TO-FACE TALKS

WASHINGTON • U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and senior U.S. officials are set to travel to China next Monday for the first high-level, face-to-face trade negotiations between the world’s two biggest economies since talks broke down in May.

Lighthizer and a small team will be in Shanghai through Wednesday, according to people familiar with the plans who asked not to be identified. The meeting will involve a broad discussion of the issues outstanding and isn’t expected to yield major breakthroughs, a senior administration official said.

President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met at the Group of 20 summit in Japan last month and declared a tentative truce in their yearlong trade war. The leaders directed their negotiators to resume trade talks. Since then Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Lighthizer and their Chinese counterparts have spoken by phone.

According to a senior administration official, the Chinese requested that the meeting take place in Shanghai, rather than Beijing.

U.S. stocks rose, sending the benchmark S&P 500 Index back above the 3,000 level, as investors assessed a batch of strong earnings and signs of progress in trade talks with China.

“We’re starting to see perhaps both sides are building more good faith for continuing negotiations,” said Michael Reynolds, investment strategy officer at Glenmede Trust Co. in Philadelphia. “It seems like they’re making progress, which is good, and the market applauds something like that.”

U.S. officials have played down the likelihood of a quick deal with China.

“It is impossible to judge how long it will take when the president’s objective is to get a proper deal or go ahead with tariffs,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday. “It is not important whether it be done a week from Tuesday or a month or two months.”

The sides remain at odds over significant issues like Washington’s demands for structural reforms to China’s economy and Beijing’s call for the U.S. to remove existing punitive tariffs on imported Chinese goods.

The talks in recent weeks have focused on Huawei licenses and agriculture purchases, and lacked engagement on structural issues that the U.S. wants addressed in any trade deal.

People familiar with next week’s meeting say it’s a positive step for talks overall but caution that it’s likely to feature a wide-ranging discussion of where things stand, rather than a chance for substantive negotiations. It’s still unclear what the starting point will be for deeper discussions. Talks collapsed in May because the two countries disagreed on draft terms of a deal.

The meeting will be the first time that China’s Commerce Minister Zhong Shan joins the core group of negotiators, which on the Chinese side has been led by Vice Premier Liu He.

Zhong is seen as more of a hardliner than Liu and some China watchers say he was added to the talks to ensure that a more hawkish view is represented at the table. Zhong is a known quantity for many U.S. officials, including Lighthizer who has met him several times over the past two years at international meetings such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summits.