China and US to resume trade talks in September

US and Chinese trade negotiators are set to resume the talks in early September even after the latest round of negotiations in Shanghai ended with little progress.

The White House revealed in a statement that the next round of high profile talks would be held in Washington and said that the two sides held “constructive” debates during the week over “forced technology transfer, intellectual-property rights, services, non-tariff barriers, and agriculture.”

“The Chinese side confirmed their commitment to increase purchases of United States agricultural exports,” according to the US statement.

American officials and their Chinese counterparts had unexpectedly wrapped up their talks early on Wednesday afternoon in Shanghai following just a half day of contacts.

Chinese state media on Thursday stressed that the two nations need to cooperate rather than confront each other, repeating that trade talks were difficult and needed to be conducted on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

Expectations for a breakthrough in the trade talks were low this time around with David Dollar a senior fellow at Brookings Institution telling Bloomberg that “putting off the next round of talks until September is an indication that no one feels any great urgency about reaching a deal.”

At the start of the week, US President Donald Trump had called out China for what he said was its "unwillingness" to buy American agricultural products and saying it continued to "rip off" the US.

Before the next meeting with top negotiators in September though, trade teams from both sides would be in close contact throughout August, Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng said at a press conference on Thursday morning.

“One is about how to view the past, mainly about what led to the halt of negotiations, while clarifying views on some issues,” he said. “The other is about what to do in the future. The two sides specified their principles and approach for the negotiations, as well as the schedule.”