U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said over the weekend that he is considering traveling to Beijing to meet with Chinese officials regarding the recent targeted tariffs announced by both nations.
According to a report from Reuters, Mnuchin told reporters at a press conference in Washington, “A trip is under consideration. I am not going to make any comment on timing, nor do I have anything confirmed, but a trip is under consideration.”
In response, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued a brief statement in which it said China would be open to the idea of discussing trade policy face-to-face.
“China has received a message from the U.S. about its willingness to hold bilateral trade talks in Beijing,” the ministry said, according to a report from CNN Money. “China welcomes this move.”
Tensions between China and the United States have been running high following a series of tariff announcements by the U.S. and retaliatory measures by the Chinese.
President Donald Trump in early March signed off on broad tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, a move many analysts assumed was aimed directly at China despite the fact that China is not a major trading partner with the United States in either of those markets.
But the real fireworks didn’t start until later in the month, when Trump teed up tariffs covering roughly $50 billion worth of products from China pursuant to a seven-month investigation into the unfair transfer of intellectual property.
China quickly retaliated, imposing duties on 128 different products from the United States worth about $3 billion in response to the steel and aluminum tariffs and another $50 billion in annual goods imports in response to the targeted intellectual property tariffs.
Despite Trump’s statement prior to the tariff announcements that “trade wars are good and easy to win,” many economists and trade analysts agree that a full-blown trade war with China would have disastrous effects on numerous U.S. industries, as well as consumers and the economy at large.