US, China economic chiefs meet in Paris to clear path to Trump-Xi summit
The two sides will meet at the Paris headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Top US and Chinese economic officials are set to launch a new round of talks in Paris on Sunday to iron out kinks in their trade truce and clear a smooth path for US President Donald Trump's trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of March.
The discussions, led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, are expected to focus on shifting US tariffs, the flow of Chinese-produced rare earth minerals and magnets to US buyers, American high-tech export controls and Chinese purchases of US agricultural products.
The two sides will meet at the Paris headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a source familiar with their planning said.
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China is not a member of the club of 38 mostly wealthy democracies and considers itself a developing country.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will also join the talks, which continue a string of meetings in European cities last year aimed at easing tensions that threatened a near collapse of trade between the world's two largest economies.
US-China trade analysts said that with little time to prepare and Washington's attention focused on the US-Israeli war with Iran, prospects for a major trade breakthrough are limited, in Paris or at the Beijing summit.
"Both sides, I think, have a minimum goal of having a meeting, which sort of keeps things together and avoids a rupture and re-escalation of tensions," said Scott Kennedy, a China economics expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Trump may want to come away from Beijing with major Chinese commitments to order new Boeing aircraft and buy more US liquefied natural gas and soybeans, but to get that he may need to offer some concession on US export controls, Kennedy added.
Instead, Kennedy said chances were high for a summit that "superficially suggests progress but that really just leaves things about where they've been for the last four months."
Trump and Xi could potentially meet three other times this year, including at a China-hosted APEC summit in November and a US-hosted G20 summit in December that could yield more tangible progress.
Iran war oil concerns
The US-Israeli war on Iran will likely come up at the Paris talks, especially in reference to the spike in oil prices and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which China gets 45% of its oil.
Bessent on Thursday night announced a 30-day waiver of sanctions to allow the sale of Russian oil stranded at sea in tankers, a move to raise supplies.
On Saturday, Trump urged other nations to help protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after Washington bombed military targets on Iran's Kharg Island oil loading hub and Iran threatened to retaliate.
China's state-run China Daily newspaper in an editorial called for continuity in the US-China dialogue as a "stabilizing anchor" amid the uncertainty of the "ongoing crisis in the Middle East" and the best way to address specific differences on issues including strategic materials, technology, market access and agriculture.
