US Trade Team to Travel to China for Talks

A U.S. trade delegation will go to China the week of Jan.7, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.

It will be the first time the two sides will meet face to face since U.S. President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping agreed to de-escalate a trade war during a meeting in Argentina on Dec.1.

The U.S. team will be led by Deputy Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish and will include David Malpass, Treasuryundersecretaryfor international affairs, Bloomberg said.

For months, the U.S. and China have engaged in tit-for-tat increases in tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of exports flowing between the two countries.

At the meeting in Buenos Aires, the two leaders agreed to a 90-day truce in the trade war between the world's two largest economies.

Trump also agreed to leave the tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products at 10 percent, and not raise them to 25 percent on Jan.1 as he had threatened.

Trump said his agreement with Xi wouldgo down "as one of the largest deals ever made. … And it'll have an incredibly positive impact on farming, meaning agriculture, industrial products, computers — every type of product."

Trump and Xi also agreed to immediately begin negotiations on structural changes with respect to forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, nontariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft, services and agriculture.

U.S. Trade Representative RobertLighthizer, who was put in charge of the China talks, said the negotiations would not be extended beyond the 90-day deadline. He said that March 1 was a "hard deadline" that was endorsed by Trump, Bloomberg reported.

Lighthizer willnot be part of the team going to Beijing.