US-China trade talks conclude without breakthroughs
July 19, 2017 at 7:07 p.m.
| Updated July 19, 2017 at 7:15 p.m.
by
Associated Press
FILE - In this Saturday, July 8, 2017, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrive for a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. After a cordial meeting between Trump and Xi in April 2017, tensions are simmering again between the world’s two biggest economies. As U.S. and Chinese economic officials prepare to meet Wednesday, July 19, in Washington, the U.S. is weighing whether to slap tariffs on steel imports and risk setting off a trade war, a dicey option to deal with a problem caused largely by China’s massive overproduction of steel. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. and Chinese officials have wrapped up high-level talks without announcing any breakthroughs on the contentious economic issues that divide them.
The daylong talks at the U.S. Treasury Department began with prickly comments from both sides. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said the world's two biggest economies need to cooperate and warned that "confrontation will immediately damage the interests of both."
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called for Beijing to provide more access to U.S. companies and to help reduce America's trade deficit with China. He blamed the trade gap - $347 billion in goods last year - on "Chinese government intervention in its economy."
