According to an official communique, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and US Secretary of Commerce Katherine Tai expressed during a telephone conversation their views on each side’s concerns and agreed to maintain communication in the future.

Liu is the chief of the China team that in recent years negotiated with the United States solutions to the trade conflict and finally in January 2020, they signed Phase one of a pact aimed at putting an end to the dispute.

This was his first contact with the administration of US President Joe Biden, and observers consider it positive, although both powers maintain friction on different fronts.

The 2020 trade agreement established obligations and mechanisms to handle disputes regarding intellectual property, food and agricultural products, trade promotion, finance, currency and transparency, forced technology transfer, bilateral assessment and dispute solution.

ef/iff/agp/ymr