TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said that “new substantial progress” has been made on the China-US economic agreement, generating optimism for an end to the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Xi’s remarks were part of a message conveyed to US President Donald Trump at the White House by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Beijing’s lead negotiator to resolve the nine month-long trade war.
The US and China are locked in a trade war since Trump imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium items from China in March last year, a move that sparked fears of a global trade war. In response, China imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars worth of American imports.
China is the world’s second largest economy after the US. Liu, who is in Washington to continue the trade negotiations, met President Trump on Thursday and conveyed Xi’s message. The Chinese President said that new substantial progress has been made on the text of the China-US economic and trade agreement in the past more than one month.
