China says it hopes US can meet it halfway in trade talks

China’s foreign ministry has indicated that it hopes the U.S. can meet it halfway on trade after the countries failed to reach an agreement earlier this year. 

“We hope that the U.S. can meet China halfway and work together with us to promote a positive result from the meeting. This is in the interest of both countries and also meets the common expectation of the international community,” said foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, according to The Associated Press. 

{mosads}President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are both attending the Group of 20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, and are expected to meet Saturday.

Trade negotiations between the two countries broke down in May. The U.S. has placed tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods and China retaliated by imposing tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. products. 

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese goods and if it comes to that, China will likely respond with additional tariffs on U.S. imports. Trump has insisted that the U.S. economy will benefit if the trade war escalates. 

Trump told Fox Business Network on Wednesday that his “Plan B” is to “take in billions and billions of dollars a month and we’ll do less and less business with them.”