Top Chinese trade negotiator to head to US for talks

By David Lawder and Joe Cash

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Senior Chinese trade negotiator Li Chenggang is expected to travel to Washington this week to meet U.S. officials, a United States government spokesperson said, with the two superpowers looking to chart a path beyond their current tariff truce.

Li, China's international trade representative and a key negotiator alongside economy tsar He Lifeng, may meet deputy-level U.S. government officials, the spokesperson said late on Monday, adding that the visit was not part of a formal negotiating session.

A source familiar with the negotiations said there was no meeting planned between Li and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and he was not coming at the request of the U.S. side.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Monday that Li would travel to Washington.

Traders on both sides of the Pacific are watching to see whether this month's latest tariff extension will become permanent or if U.S. President Donald Trump will once again upend global supply chains with a fresh wave of prohibitively high duties on Chinese imports.

U.S. retailers are stocking up ahead of the critical end-of-year holiday season, while Chinese producers - locked out of the world's top consumer economy - say they are in "survival mode", scrambling to secure market share elsewhere to stay afloat.

The world's two largest economies on August 11 agreed to extend their tariff truce for another 90 days, locking in place levies of 30% on Chinese imports and 10% Chinese duties on U.S. goods.

Once Trump's tariffs top 35%, they become prohibitively high for Chinese exporters, economists warn.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The timing of the visit is particularly awkward given the recent highly critical comments by the Chinese ambassador to the United States regarding Trump's trade policy, the source said.

"(U.S.) protectionism is rampant, casting a shadow over China-U.S. agricultural cooperation," Ambassador Xie Feng said in a speech to a soybean industry event in Washington on Friday, calling the Trump administration's plans to curb farmland purchases by "foreign adversaries", including China, "political manipulation."

Agriculture has become a major point of contention, as Chinese buyers shun U.S. agricultural products such as soybeans - now subject to a 23% tariff - leaving American farmers in the lurch.

China stepping up its agricultural purchases would make a big dent in its trade surplus with the U.S., analysts say, and was how Beijing sought to meet its commitment to purchase more U.S. exports under the 'Phase 1' deal struck during Trump's first term in 2020.

But Beijing thinks it can cut a better deal this time out.

"China's requests will include lower tariffs and potentially access to the U.S.' cutting-edge technologies," said Xu Tianchen, a Beijing-based senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

"It's quite unclear if the White House is going to accept these, and what it's going to ask for in exchange."

Li's trip would follow three previous rounds of trade negotiations between the two nations since May - in Geneva, London and, earlier this month, in Stockholm.

The last time a senior Chinese trade negotiator visited the U.S. was in November 2023, when He Lifeng met then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in San Francisco, ahead of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit in the city.

Then vice-Premier Liu He, He Lifeng's predecessor, was the last top Chinese trade official to travel to Washington for bilateral talks, signing the 'Phase 1' trade deal with the Trump administration in January 2020, committing Beijing to boost purchases of U.S. exports by $200 billion over a two-year period.