China says Sino-U.S. trade teams are "intensifying contact"

Reuters - China's foreign ministry said on Monday (December 10) that China and U.S. trade teams are "intensifying contact and consultations", a day after Washington said March 1 is the "hard deadline" for successful trade talks to wrap up. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Sunday (December 9), after a week of seeming confusion among President Donald Trump and his advisers, that unless U.S.-China trade talks wrap up successfully by March 1, new tariffs will be imposed. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang's comments on Monday came after being asked if China was sending a trade negotiation delegation to the United States this week. In Argentina, last weekend, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a truce that delayed the planned Jan. 1 U.S. hike of tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods while they negotiate a trade deal. However, the arrest of a top executive at China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has roiled global markets amid fears that it could further inflame the China-U.S. trade row. In Beijing on Sunday, China's foreign ministry protested the arrest to the U.S. ambassador.