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January 18, 2019

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Liu and US officials to work together

CHINESE Vice Premier Liu He will travel to the United States for trade talks later this month, the commerce ministry said yesterday.

Liu will visit Washington on January 30 and 31 for the negotiations, following up on talks between lower-level officials in Beijing earlier this month.

Liu and US officials will “hold negotiations on economic and trade issues and work together to push forward and implement the consensus” reached by Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in December, ministry spokesman Gao Feng said.

US officials have said that last week’s talks in Beijing “went just fine” but few details from the meeting have emerged.

Liu will travel at the invitation of US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Gao said.

Meanwhile, China is confident in its ability to keep foreign trade growth stable while improving its quality this year despite greater external uncertainties, the Ministry of Commerce added.

“The development of China’s foreign trade remains on a strong and solid foundation,” Gao said.

The confidence derives from deepening supply-side structural reforms, improvements in the country’s foreign trade structure and increasing internal impetuses to growth, Gao said.

The ministry has unveiled a list of 30 key markets for foreign trade expansion this year.

This will see China actively tap into the potential of emerging and developing economies related to the Belt and Road Initiative, while continuing to explore traditional markets in developed countries.

Gao said the ministry will offer enterprises greater support including trade promotions, public information services and government institutional safeguards for trade market diversification.

“We will roll out more measures in a targeted and timely manner to help foreign trade firms turn challenges into opportunities and achieve innovational development,” Gao said.

Commenting on the decline of China’s foreign trade growth in December, Gao said the growth in the fourth quarter was still within reasonable range despite the monthly fluctuation.

“The fluctuation was mainly caused by weaker demand in the international market and a high basis the previous year,” he said.

China’s import and export volume hit a historic high of 30.51 trillion yuan (US$4.5 trillion) in 2018, up 9.7 percent year on year.




 

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