<![CDATA[Top US and China trade war negotiators reach 'consensus on principles']>
Beijing and Washington have "reached consensus on principles" to resolve their 17 month-old trade war, China's commerce ministry said on Saturday, Beijing time.
The announcement didn't say what principles had been agreed upon.
The consensus was reached in a call on Friday night by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, according to the ministry.
"The two sides conducted serious and constructive discussions on properly addressing their core concerns," the ministry said in a statement.
Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan, Governor of the People's Bank of China Yi Gang, and Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission Ning Jizhen also were on the call, the ministry said.
"The two sides discussed the next consultations," the ministry said, without elaborating.
The bitter trade war has seen China and the US hammer billions of dollars of each other's goods with escalating tariffs since July 2018.
The US government wants China to end heavy state subsidies and to agree to an enforcement mechanism to curb China's practice of forcing foreign companies to transfer proprietary technology to Chinese joint venture partners, among other measures.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump had been expected to meet after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago, Chile to sign a "phase one" trade deal announced by the parties early in October.
US President Donald Trump and China's president, Xi Jinping, were expected to sign an interim trade deal at a now-cancelled Apec meeting this month. Photo: AP alt=US President Donald Trump and China's president, Xi Jinping, were expected to sign an interim trade deal at a now-cancelled Apec meeting this month. Photo: AP
Trade envoys from Beijing and Washington had been working ever since to set the text of the interim trade agreement the two leaders would sign.
But uncertainty hit the talks once again after Chile's government on Wednesday cancelled the Apec economic leaders' meeting because of unrest that has taxed the country's security forces.
Besides scrapping the Apec meeting scheduled for November 16 and 17, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera also cancelled a United Nations climate change conference known as the COP25, which was scheduled for December.
News that a partial deal could be signed had halted a plan by the US trade representative's office to impose an additional 5 per cent duty on US$250 billion worth of Chinese goods on October 15, raising the levy to 30 per cent.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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