By Adedapo Adesanya
The United States and China trade talk took another turn on Tuesday morning as negotiators from both countries held a telephone conversation to discuss their core concerns and agreed to maintain communication on a potential interim trade agreement.
This was disclosed by the Chinese commerce ministry, which said the conversation was among Chinese Vice-Premier and lead negotiator in the trade talks, Lui He and the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin,
“They discussed how to address respective core concerns, reached consensus on solving related problems, and agreed to keep communication for the remaining matters in the ‘phase one’ trade negotiations”, the ministry said in a statement.
Ten days ago, the Chinese media had reported that both countries had constructive discussions on core issues and the need for both parties to make concessions when necessary. This has since sparked talks that the two countries were moving closer to agreeing on a phase one of the trade deal.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), this latest phone call took place a day after China summoned Terry Branstad, the US ambassador to China, to protest about the passage through the US Congress of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act – China’s third such move in less than a week.
It was reported that the Chinese Foreign Vice-Minister Zheng Zeguang “lodged solemn representations” with Branstad over the advancement of the US legislation, the foreign ministry said in a statement earlier on Tuesday.
The trade talks, which had always affected oil prices, saw a shift as at the time of this report as Brent Crude was trading down by 1 cent at $62.61 per barrel, while its US counterpart, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI), was also trading down 6 cents at $57.95 per barrel after trading up to $58.
Modupe Gbadeyanka