US, China ‘miles and miles’ from resolving trade conflict: official

WASHINGTON: Washington and Beijing are “miles and miles” from resolving their trade war, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday.

A high-level Chinese delegation is due in Washington next week for talks to resolve the dispute by March 1, when US duty rates on Chinese imports are due to rise sharply, but Ross tried to tamp down expectations to those meetings.

“There’s been a lot of anticipatory work done but we’re miles and miles from getting a resolution and that shouldn’t be too surprising,” Ross told CNBC.

Wall Street futures suddenly fell during his remarks, which came a day after the White House contradicted reports the trade talks had hit serious obstacles. His comments also coincided with pessimistic policy remarks from the European Central Bank. Just after the open, US stocks were in mixed territory but mostly in the red.

As the world economy comes under increasing strain, the possibility of failure in the US-China talks has rattled global stock markets repeatedly over the last year.

Washington accuses Beijing of a host of unfair trading practices, especially theft of American technological know-how.

Ross said there was still “a fair chance” of reaching a deal with Beijing, but much work remains to be done since the dispute involves issues difficult to address in a short time frame.

“I believe China would like to make a deal. I believe we would like to make a deal but it has to be a deal that works for both parties,” he said.