Senator Daines’ Beijing visit: A bid to revive stalled trade talks

"Xi Jinping's government is prepared to welcome a U.S. senator close to Donald Trump, as the world's largest economies seek to advance trade talks that have stalled," Bloomberg reports.

It adds that the Republican will be the first American politician to publicly meet with a high-ranking Communist Party official since Donald Trump's return to office.

"Daines' trip to China is a way to negotiate behind the scenes," Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief economist for Asia and the Pacific at Natixis, told Bloomberg.

The U.S. and China are in talks about organising a "birthday summit," which would take place in June in Washington, as reported recently by the Wall Street Journal. President Donald Trump will celebrate his 79th birthday on 14 June, and the following day, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will turn 72.

The newspaper notes that "facing increasing economic pressure, Beijing is interested in engaging in negotiations to avoid or delay the raising of tariffs and further technological restrictions from the U.S."

On the night of 3 to 4 March, the United States increased the tariff rate on goods from China from the 10% imposed at the beginning of February to 20%.

After Donald Trump announced the first tariffs on Chinese imports last month, Beijing responded with, among other things, 15% tariffs on the import of coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as 10% tariffs on the import of crude oil or agricultural machinery.

The doubling of the tariff by the U.S. was met in turn with retaliation in the form of tariffs ranging from 10% to 15% on the import of agri-food products from the U.S.