US representatives met with their Chinese counterparts in Shanghai on Wednesday for the first round of discussions after after US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping agreed on a truce. On the eve of the talks on Wednesday, Mr Trump boasted his tariffs had forced China “back on its heels” and suggested Beijing was not negotiating in good faith. The meetings, which both sides described as constructive, brought together US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and Chinese vice-premier Liu He.
Hours before the talks kicked off, Mr Trump risked infuriating Beijing when he tweeted: “China has lost 5 million jobs and two million manufacturing jobs due to the Trump Tariffs.
“Trump got China back on its heels, and the United States is doing great.”
He also suggested Beijing was not negotiating honestly when he said there were “no signs” that China was honouring its pledge to buy more American agricultural products.
Mr Trump and Mr Xi agreed to relaunch discussions on trade amid the ongoing war when they met at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in July.
Mr Trump agreed to hold back on imposing new tariffs on Chinese goods “for the time being” and ease restrictions for US companies to sell to Huawei.
A spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry said Mr Trump’s comments had made her “snigger” and she called on the Trump administration to do more to show “sincerity” and “integrity”.
Hua Chunying said: “At this time, for the US to show an intention of using maximum pressure is meaningless, it’s like asking someone else to take medicine to cure your own illness.”
China’s official news agency Xihua described the talks as “frank, effective and constructive” while the White House said “topics such as forced technology transfer, intellectual property rights, services, non-tariff barriers and agriculture” had been on the table.
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The US also agreed to move forward on relaxing restrictions on sales to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
Sources in Washington said the month-long delay until the next round of talks would give both sides an opportunity to show they were serious about these commitments by taken action.