Mnuchin heading to China for trade talks

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday said he and other U.S. officials will travel next week to Beijing for another round of trade talks with China.

United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will join Mnuchin for the talks, according to Reuters.

{mosads}“Ambassador Lighthizer and myself and a large team are on our way to Beijing next week. We are committed to continue these talks,” Mnuchin said in an appearance on CNBC. “We’re putting in an enormous amount of effort to try to hit this deadline and get a deal. So that’s our objective.”

China and the U.S. have set a March 1 deadline to reach an agreement in their trade dispute, and President Trump has said he will increase U.S. tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent if a deal isn’t reached by that point.

The talks will come after a Chinese delegation visited Washington last week for negotiations. The trade war between the world’s top two economies has seen both nations issue billions of dollars in tariffs on the other.

Mnuchin on Wednesday called last week’s talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu “very productive.”

Trump said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday that a deal with China needs to include “real, structural change.”

“I have great respect for President Xi, and we are now working on a new trade deal with China,” he said. “But it must include real, structural change to end unfair trade practices, reduce our chronic trade deficit, and protect American jobs.”