By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will attend a new round of talks with Chinese officials due to start on Sunday in Madrid on trade and other economic issues including a Wednesday deadline for TikTok to divest its U.S. assets, a USTR official said on Saturday.
Greer will join U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for the talks in Spain with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and other senior Chinese economic officials.
The three officials, along with China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, last met in Stockholm in July where they agreed in principle to extend for 90 days a trade truce that sharply reduced triple-digit retaliatory tariffs on both sides and restarted the flow of rare-earth minerals from China to the United States.
President Donald Trump has approved the extension of current U.S. tariff rates on Chinese goods, totaling about 55%, until November 10.
The Treasury has said that the Madrid talks would cover a range of trade and economic issues, including national security concerns over TikTok and joint U.S.-Chinese efforts to combat money laundering.
Bessent urged Group of Seven allies on Friday to impose “meaningful tariffs” on imports from China and India to pressure them to stop buying Russian oil, a move aimed at bringing Moscow into Ukraine peace negotiations by slowing its oil revenues.
The G7 finance ministers said on Friday they discussed such measures among a wide range of steps to increase pressure on Moscow, and agreed to speed up discussions to use frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine’s defense.
Bessent and Greer said in a separate statement that G7 allies should join the United States in imposing tariffs on buyers of Russian oil.
“Only with a unified effort that cuts off the revenues funding Putin’s war machine at the source will we be able to apply sufficient economic pressure to end the senseless killing,” Bessent and Greer said.
The United States has imposed an extra 25% tariff on Indian goods over the country’s purchases of Russian oil, but has so far refrained from imposing such punitive duties on Chinese goods.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has said that the Madrid talks will cover economic and trade issues such as U.S. tariffs, the “abuse” of export controls and TikTok.
Separately, China launched on Saturday a new anti-discrimination investigation into U.S. trade policy over semiconductors, and an investigation into dumping of U.S. chips on the Chinese market in various devices.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Mark Porter)
Comments