The US and China will create a working group on trade issues

USA and China They have agreed to create a working group on trade issues, the US Commerce Department said Monday, as the two world powers try to ease bilateral tensions.

The US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, and her Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, reached the agreement on Monday in Beijing, where they met with their delegations.

Raimondo is the fourth person in charge of the administration Biden traveling to China this year, a sign that reflects the rapprochement at a high level between the two countries. Such visits could culminate in a meeting between the two leaders, the American Joe Biden and the Chinese Xi Jinping.

Both countries agreed to create a working group to “seek solutions to trade and investment issues,” the US Commerce Department said in a statement.

The working group will meet twice a year at the vice-ministerial level, and USA it will host the first meeting in early 2024, according to the text.

They also agreed to establish what Washington called an “export control enforcement information exchange,” billed as a platform to “reduce misunderstandings of US national security policies.”

“We share US$ 700,000 million in Yocommercial exchanges (…) It is extremely important that we have stable relationships”Raimondo told his counterpart, according to a statement from his office.

“This is a complicated relationship, a difficult relationship,” warned the person in charge.

“We will of course disagree on various issues, but I think we can move forward if we are direct, open and pragmatic,” assured.

The two officials met with their respective delegations, according to CCTV images.

“It is a great pleasure to dialogue and coordinate with you in the fields of economy and trade”, his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, told Raimondo.

Raimondo arrived on Sunday at beijing and was received by Li Feng, director of the Ministry of Commerce for America and Oceania. He also plans to visit the Chinese economic capital, Shanghai.

– Trade tensions –

The relationships between Washington and beijing they have fallen to their lowest level in decades, largely because of US trade restrictions.

Washington says these restrictions are crucial to safeguarding its national security, while Beijing calls them ways to stem China’s economic boom.

Biden this month signed an executive order to restrict certain US investment in some high-tech areas of China, something Beijing called “anti-globalization”.

The measures, which should enter into force next year, target sectors such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

Raimondo told Chinese officials on Monday that there was “no room for maneuver to compromise or compromise” on US national security.

But “the vast majority of our trade and investment relations do not concern national security issues,” he said.

“We believe that a strong Chinese economy is a good thing,” he reiterated.

The US Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellenalso wanted to calm the Chinese authorities during a July visit to Beijing, where he promised that any new provisions would be applied transparently.

In June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also traveled to Beijing, where he met with Xi and said progress had been made on a number of discordant issues. And a month later climate envoy John Kerry was in China.

But these visits bore little fruit, and a recent summit at Camp David between USA, South Korea and Japan, aimed in part at confronting China, was heavily criticized by Beijing.

After that appointment, Biden said he still hopes to meet Xi this year.

Biden invited his Chinese counterpart to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum summit in November in San Francisco.

They could also meet in September in New Delhi, during the G20 summit.