Montana senator meets Beijing official amid trade tensions
According to Bloomberg reports, Montana State Senator Steve Daines, a supporter of Donald Trump, will meet with a high-ranking Chinese leader in Beijing on Saturday.
"President Xi Jinping’s government is set to welcome a US senator close to Donald Trump, as the world’s largest economies try to move forward trade talks that have stalled at lower levels," Bloomberg reports.
Senator heads to Beijing
The report 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 Wall Street Journal recently reported that the U.S. and China are discussing organizing a "birthday summit " in Washington in June. President Donald Trump will celebrate his 79th birthday on June 14, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will turn 72 the next day.
The newspaper notes that facing increasing economic pressure, Beijing is interested in negotiating to avoid or delay the raising of tariffs and further technological restrictions from the U.S.
Trump's tariffs
On the night of March 3 to 4, 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 importing coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and 10% tariffs on importing crude oil or agricultural machinery.
The doubling of the tariff by the U.S. was met with retaliation in the form of tariffs ranging from 10% to 15% on the import of agri-food products from the U.S.
