US team reaches China to engage in trade deal talks

Washington suspended plans in December to increase tariffs on $200bn worth of Chinese imports to 25% from current 10% to give negotiators space to resolve a trade spat that has triggered fears of a global economic slowdown.

A previous round of talks in Washington ended without a deal last month.

Deputy trade representative Jeffrey Gerrish would lead the US delegation in today's preparatory meetings.

The White House confirmed that Gerrish would lead the US delegation in preparatory meetings to begin today.

The talks will also include officials from the agriculture, energy and commerce departments.

Gerrish left his hotel in downtown Beijing this morning without talking to the media.

Mnuchin and Lighthizer will be joined by David Malpass, Trump's nominee for president of the World Bank.

The Chinese delegation will be led by Vice Premier Liu He, who will be joined by central bank governor Yi Gang.

Liu, China's chief trade negotiator, met last month with Trump, who announced that a final resolution of the trade dispute would depend on a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping "in the near future" and that he wouldn't meet Xi before March 1.

Trump on Thursday said that he did not expect to meet his Chinese counterpart before the trade truce expires on March 1.

The Trump administration is demanding far-reaching changes from China to address commercial practices that it says are deeply unfair, including theft of American intellectual property and myriad barriers that US and other foreign companies face in the Chinese domestic market.

Ahead of the trade talks, China's stock market faced a mixed response today from investors.

Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.36% to close at 2,653.90 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed about 0.6% in the final hour of the trade.

Meanwhile, South Korea's Kospi recovered from earlier loss by gaining 0.17% at 2,180.73.

The banking groups of Australia and New Zealand declined by 1.3%.