U.S.-China Trade Talks Restart Ahead of March Deadline

U.S. and Chinese officials have begun talks aimed at ending the trade war that has imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs over the past year. The U.S. is seeking concessions in Chinese business practices; in exchange it will eliminate tariffs recently imposed on Chinese goods.

"Top administration officials are confident they have enough leverage to win significant changes," NPR's Shanghai correspondent Rob Schmitz reports, "including an end to China's practice of forcing US companies to hand over key technology in return for gaining access to China's market, and an agreement to buy more products from the U.S."

If the talks this week between the mid-level U.S. trade officials and their Chinese counterparts go well, senior Chinese officials are likely to head to D.C. in the coming weeks to continue negotiations, Schmitz reports.

Beijing is prepared to buy more American products, Schmitz told NPR's Steve Inskeep. "But what's going to be difficult for the Chinese side is to level the playing field for U.S. companies inside of China. And to do that properly would require significant changes in how China manages its economy — changes that would put the Chinese government and its state-owned enterprises in a vulnerable position."

In March, when the tariff tit-for-tat was in its infancy, President Trump suggested the U.S. might impose up to $60 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods. By the time President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day tariff truce in early December, the U.S. had placed a total of $250 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, and Beijing had retaliated with $110 billion in tariffs of its own.