Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Chinese side's chief negotiator in the comprehensive economic dialogue with the U.S., held a phone conversation with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
The two sides conducted a constructive dialogue on such issues as strengthening bilateral coordination of macroeconomic policies and the implementation of the China-U.S. phase one economic and trade agreement reached in January.
China and the U.S. agreed to create conditions to continue pushing forward the implementation of the trade deal.
According to sources familiar with the call, the atmosphere was amicable and the conversations went smoothly especially in agricultural and financial areas, according to a report by China's state media CCTV.
The China and U.S. relationship is sailing in ever complicated waters, and are drawing a big trunk of international attention.
The outbreak of coronavirus has traumatized the global economy, and also brought some uncertainty to the implementation of the phase one trade deal. Despite facing extreme challenges, China still honors the deal. In this year's government work report, the Chinese government emphasized the plan to implement the trade deal together with the U.S.
Both sides did agree to create conditions to continue to push for the trade deal implementation, which means that the current conditions and atmosphere between the two countries has room for improvement, according to the CCTV report.
The biggest challenge for the implementation of the trade deal now is not the virus, according to the CCTV piece. The trade deal is a joint agreement, its implementation needs efforts from both China and the U.S.; it's not a unilateral responsibility. If one party ignores this point, it will cast a negative light on the deal.
The report further emphasized that an economic and trade deal shouldn't be entwined with political agendas, as that kind of move will not fare well.
Later according to a statement released by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the two sides discussed areas include removing impediments to American companies in the areas of financial services and agriculture, and the steps China has taken to effectuate changes called for by the agreement that will ensure greater protection for intellectual property rights, and eliminating forced technology transfer. The parties also discussed the significant increases in purchases of U.S. products by China as well as future actions needed to continue implementing the agreement.
According to the statement, both sides see progress and are committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure the success of the agreement.
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Data from China's General Administration of Customs showed that the total value of China-U.S. trade was 2.03 trillion yuan (about 293.36 billion U.S. dollars) during the first seven months of 2020, down 3.3 percent from a year earlier and accounting for 11.8 percent of China's total foreign trade.
"The coronavirus pandemic and U.S. export control measures undoubtedly had an impact on Chinese purchases of U.S. goods and services," Ren Hongbin, assistant minister of the MOFCOM said earlier this month.
He added that the current situation demands that the two sides work together and step up cooperation to overcome these difficult times.