FILE PHOTO – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin speaks to Capitol Hill reporters after it was reporterd House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) would ask the Treasury Department to delay the lifting of sanctions on two companies tied to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to give Congress time to review the decision in Washington, U.S., January 15, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
February 5, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer plan to hold trade talks in Beijing early next week, Dow Jones reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified senior administration official.
China has agreed to widen trade discussions to include hacking, it said. Reuters was not able to immediately confirm the new round of talks.
The two sides met in Washington last week for high-level talks, with President Donald Trump saying he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to try to seal a comprehensive trade deal.
Trump, speaking at the White House last week during a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, said he was optimistic that the world’s two largest economies could reach “the biggest deal ever made.”
The Chinese trade delegation said in a statement that the talks had made “important progress,” China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Susan Thomas and Sandra Maler)
