A new round of negotiations aimed at resolving the ongoing trade war between the United States and China is set to take place in London on Monday.
US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that a senior American delegation would meet with Chinese representatives. Over the weekend, Beijing confirmed that Vice Premier He Lifeng will attend the talks.
The announcements followed a phone call last week between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which Trump described as a “very good talk”.
Last month, the world’s two largest economies agreed to a temporary truce that included lowering tariffs on goods traded between them. However, both sides have since accused each other of breaching the agreement.
Trump said the US delegation would include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
China’s foreign ministry confirmed that Vice-Premier He would be in the UK from 8 to 13 June and that a meeting of the “China-US economic and trade mechanism” would take place during the visit.
According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Xi told Trump during their recent call that the US should “withdraw the negative measures it has taken against China”. The conversation marked the first direct communication between the two leaders since the trade war began in February.
Earlier this year, Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from several countries, with China being most affected. Beijing retaliated with its own tariffs, triggering a tit-for-tat escalation that peaked at a combined rate of 145 percent.
Talks held in Switzerland in May led to a temporary truce, which Trump referred to as a “total reset”. Under that agreement, US tariffs on Chinese goods were reduced to 30 percent, while China lowered its levies on US imports to 10 percent and pledged to ease restrictions on exports of critical minerals.
The US had earlier restricted technology sales to China, including semiconductors, while Beijing had curbed exports of rare earth minerals and magnets.
The May agreement gave both sides a 90-day window to try to reach a lasting deal.
However, relations have since cooled. Last month, Trump accused China of “totally violating its agreement with us”, while Beijing later said the US had “severely violated” the terms.
Washington claimed that China had failed to resume shipments of critical minerals and rare earth magnets vital to industries such as automotive and computing.
Despite recent diplomatic exchanges, the fragile truce remains at risk as both sides continue to dispute the terms of the earlier agreement.