Tensions rife in trade meeting

THE US AND China will have no trouble filling the agenda as they meet this week for their seventh Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The challenge will be finding topics on which they can agree. The world’s two largest economies yesterday started talks in Washington on issues ranging from trade to terrorism. The meeting takes place amid tensions over the US’s attempts to finalise an Asia-Pacific trade pact that excludes Beijing, China’s efforts to establish alternate financial institutions, and a cyber theft of US data. – Bloomberg