Trade talks between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit next month will only go ahead if Beijing provides a list of concessions in advance, claim inside sources.
The sources told the Financial Times that China has acknowledged the demand but will only present concessions in a guaranteed “stable political climate” in Washington. This includes appointing an intermediary who can conduct talks on behalf of the president’s office, they said.
The US has previously called on China to address “structural issues” in their trade policy, in return for which they will alleviate recent tariff pressure on Chinese imports. China, however, has rejected around one-third of the clauses, such as opening its domestic cloud computing market to foreign entities, on grounds such as national security.
The G20 summit will open in Buenos Aires on November 30. It will be preceded by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in Papua New Guinea on November 18, which will also be attended by Xi and US Vice President Mike Pence.