Beijing and Washington officials are holding high-level talks on Thursday and Friday in the US capital to discuss each other’s demands over trade. During the much-anticipated meeting sources told Reuters a broad outline of what the agreement could be is starting to emerge, with some hoping the US and China will be able to strike a deal by March 1. Several Chinese government sources told Reuters the two countries have basically reached a consensus on alleviating the trade imbalances.
But the officials are still struggling on meeting each other's "core demands" that they were seeking to narrow.
One Chinese official familiar with the situation said: "It can be said that we are now in the sprint phase, and both negotiating teams are working towards the goal of reaching an agreement within the deadline, but some problems are still quite complicated to resolve.”
Negotiators are drawing up six memorandums of understanding on structural issues: forced technology transfer and cyber theft, intellectual property rights, services, currency, agriculture, and non-tariff barriers to trade, according to two sources familiar with the progress of the talks.
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Beijing and Washington
