WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai discussed the importance of U.S.-China trade relations in a meeting with U.S. Foreign Minister Wang Wentao on Friday, her office said.
Tai emphasized the importance of keeping the lines of communication open between Washington and Beijing when the two officials spoke on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in Detroit, according to a statement.
“Tai’s representative emphasized the need to address the critical inequalities caused by China’s state, non-based market access to economic and trade policy,” the statement said, referring to a meeting with the Chinese minister.
“He also expressed concern about PRC actions against US companies operating there,” he added.
The talks came a day after US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Wang discussed critical trade, investment and export policies in their meeting, the first trade cabinet meeting between the two countries in months.
US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping promised more frequent communications at the G20 summit in Indonesia last November to prevent tensions between the two powers from escalating into a new cold war.
But those plans have suffered a number of setbacks, starting with the evacuation of a Chinese spy balloon over US waters.
Tensions continued until the last day, when G7 leaders vowed to resist China’s “economic coercion” and Beijing responded by declaring micron memory technology a national security risk by banning sales to domestic industries.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Doina Chiacu. Edited in Spanish by Marion Giraldo)
