THE Chinese delegation is preparing to attend the next round of high-level economic and trade consultations in the United States, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a regular news conference in Beijing yesterday.

Geng made the response after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would raise tariffs on Chinese goods worth US$200 billion this week.

“China hopes the trade talks can achieve positive progress, and that the two countries meet each other half way to get the benefits of the two countries and meet the expectation of the international community,” noted Geng.

“We hope China and the U.S. achieve a mutually beneficial agreement based on mutual respect,” added Geng.

U.S. stocks futures were sharply lower overnight, as were Asian stock markets.

Last week, Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met in Beijing for the 10th round of trade talks between China and the United States.

The two sides are working on putting bilateral trade on a stronger footing and the latest meetings were productive, Mnuchin wrote on his Twitter account, without giving details.

Liu is chief of the Chinese side of the China-U.S. comprehensive economic dialogue.

Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said last month that the two countries’ negotiating teams are hashing out the text of a deal, including an enforcement mechanism, based on mutual respect and benefit. Both countries, the world’s two biggest economies, have been intensifying their consultations and aiming to break the deadlock in a timely manner.

In the ninth round of trade consultations, negotiators discussed technology transfers, protection of intellectual property rights, nontariff measures, the service sector, agriculture, trade imbalances and enforcement mechanisms.

Trade between China and the U.S. amounted to 815.86 billion yuan (US$121.7 billion) in the first quarter of the year, an 11 percent year-on-year decline, according to the General Administration of Customs. In March, Sino-U.S. trade climbed 0.1 percent to 291.35 billion yuan, according to the administration.(SD-Agencies)

(Related story on P10)