US President Donald Trump says he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping soon to try to seal a comprehensive trade deal as he and his top trade negotiator both cited substantial progress in two days of high-level talks.
Trump, speaking at the White House 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 two days of high-level talks made "important progress," China's official Xinhua news agency reported.
No specific plans for a meeting with Xi were announced, but Trump said there could be more than one meeting.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were invited to bring a US negotiating team to Beijing around mid-February, with dates still pending.
At the end of the talks next door to the White House, Liu told Trump that China would make a new, immediate commitment to increase soybean purchases.
An administration official later clarified the amount as a total of 5 million tonnes, effectively doubling the amount bought by China since resuming limited purchases in December.
US soybean sales to China, which totalled 31.7 million tonnes in 2017, were largely cut off in the second half of last year by China's retaliatory tariffs and the announcement drew a positive reaction from Trump, who said it would "make our farmers very happy."
The Chinese delegation's statement said China will expand imports of US agricultural, energy, service and industrial products, according to Xinhua.
While China has offered increased purchases of US farm, energy and other goods to try to resolve the trade disputes, negotiators dug into thornier issues, including US demands that China take steps to protect American intellectual property and end policies that Washington says force US companies to turn over technology to Chinese firms.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said there was "substantial progress" on these issues, including verification mechanisms to "enforce" China's follow-through on any reform commitments it makes.
Asked whether the two sides discussed lifting US tariffs on Chinese goods, Lighthizer said tariffs were not part of the talks.
The White House said in a statement that a scheduled March 2 tariff increase on $US200 billion of Chinese goods to 25 per cent from 10 per cent was a "hard deadline" if no deal was reached by March 1.
Trump said he did not think he would need to extend the deadline. "I think when president Xi and I meet, every point will be agreed to," Trump added.
But Trump has vetoed multiple proposed trade deals with China, choosing to push ahead with tariffs on Chinese goods to gain leverage. Earlier, Trump said on Twitter he was looking for China to open its markets "not only to Financial Services, which they are now doing, but also to our Manufacturing, Farmers and other US businesses and industries. Without this a deal would be unacceptable!"
Chinese officials have said their policies do not coerce technology transfers.
The Chinese delegation said China will actively respond to US concerns on intellectual property and creating a fair market environment, Xinhua reported.
