White House's Kudlow sees scope for 'something positive' coming out of US-China talks

National economic council director, Larry Kudlow, confirmed that top US and Chinese trade officials would meet in early October and said he saw the potential for "something positive" to come out of thirteenth round of negotiations.

In remarks to CNBC on Friday, Kudlow reportedly also confirmed that deputy level talks were scheduled in September.

Reports the day before had indicated that those contacts would take place but the date of the top-level face-to-face meetings in Washington appeared to be in doubt.

Earlier, the editor of Chinese state-owned media outfit, the Global Times, Hu Xijin, had said: "China and the US announced new round of trade talks and will work to make substantial progress.

China and the US announced new round of trade talks and will work to make substantial progress. Personally I think the US, worn out by the trade war, may no longer hope for crushing China's will. There's more possibility of a breakthrough between the two sides.

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) September 5, 2019

"Personally I think the US, worn out by the trade war, may no longer hope for crushing China's will. There's more possibility of a breakthrough between the two sides."

And overnight, while on a visit to Beijing, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, reportedly said that the US-China trade dispute "affects everybody" and that she hoped that there would be a solution.