China eyes stronger US cooperation at tariff talks
Spokesman Guo Jiakun says China-US ties should be developed on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit. Photo courtesy of Foreign Ministry website
China said on Wednesday it will seek to strengthen cooperation with the United States at next week's trade talks in Stockholm.
"On the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit... we will enhance consensus, reduce misunderstandings, strengthen cooperation and promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of Sino-US relations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week for tariff talks, eyeing an extension to a mid-August deadline for levies to snap back to steeper levels.
Bessent told Fox Business he will be speaking with Chinese officials in the Swedish capital on Monday and Tuesday for a third round of high-level negotiations, to work out what he said would be a likely postponement of the deadline.
Washington and Beijing slapped escalating, tit-for-tat levies on each other's exports earlier this year, reaching triple-digit levels, stalling trade between the world's two biggest economies as tensions surged.
But after top officials met in Geneva in May, both sides agreed to temporarily lower their tariff levels in a de-escalation set to expire next month. Officials from the two countries also met in London in June.
"That deal expires on August 12, and I'm going to be in Stockholm on Monday and Tuesday with my Chinese counterparts, and we'll be working out what is likely an extension then," Bessent said in the interview.
He noted that Washington also wanted to speak about a wider range of topics, potentially including Chinese purchases of Iranian and Russian oil. (AFP)
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