China makes 'unprecedented' proposals, US may lift some tariffs

According to one of four American officials, China tabled proposals that went further than in the past.

The same source also told Reuters that negotiators had made progress on the details of the written agreements that had been drawn up to address Washington's concerns.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that "if you looked at the texts a month ago compared to today, we have moved forward in all areas. We aren't yet where we want to be."

Regarding technology transfers, progress had been made both in terms of scope and details, the same source said.

Separately, citing people briefed on the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported that China was offering foreign technology companies increased access to its fast-growing cloud-computing market.

That offer, which was made by Premier Li Keqiang, was reportedly tabled to roughly three dozen corporate captains, including those from Rio Tinto and BMW, on Monday.

Written agreements were being drafted covering: forced technology transfer and cyber theft, intellectual property rights, services, currency, agriculture and non-tariff barriers to trade.

The report from Reuters came as the US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, and the Treasury of the Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, were arriving in Beijing for the next round of face-to-face talks, with further negotiations set to follow in Washington over the course of the following week.

Nevertheless, Washington was still being cautious when it came to the chances for a successful conclusion of the talks, with another Trump administration official having reportedly said that "it could go to May, June, no one knows. It could happen in April, we don't know."

Regarding Beijing's negotiating stance, which asks the US to remove its tariffs on Chinese exports as part of any deal, a second official told Reuters that "some tariffs will stay.

"There's going to be some give on that, but we're not going to get rid of all the tariffs. We can't."

Some agreement had also reportedly been reached on the enforcement mechanisms for the deal that both sides would have recourse to.

The first official cited by Reuters said he was confident both sides could reach a deal but said that until everything had been agreed and signed matters could still go either way.

And if necessary, the US was willing to walk away from the negotiating table in order to secure a "good" deal.