VICE Premier Liu He, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chief of the Chinese side of the China-U.S. comprehensive economic dialogue, held a phone conversation at request with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin late Friday.

In the phone talks, the two sides agreed to appropriately address each other’s core concerns, and confirmed that the technical consultations on part of the text of the agreement have been basically completed.

They also confirmed that the two sides have reached consensus on U.S. importing Chinese-made cooked poultry meat, the equivalence of catfish product supervision systems, China’s lifting of the ban on U.S. poultry exports, as well as on applying the public health information system of meat products.

The two sides agreed that the chief negotiators will hold another phone conversation soon and their team members will make continuous and stepped-up efforts on the consultations.

Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, Governor of the People’s Bank of China Yi Gang, and Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission Ning Jizhe also joined the talks. (Xinhua)