Report: China Talks Could Continue Into June

The White House said the U.S. trade representative and the Treasury secretary made progress in talks with China's Vice Premier Liu He in Beijing this week, and that the administration looks forward to the Chinese delegation's arrival in Washington next week.

A story from Reuters reporters in Beijing quoted two negotiators on the U.S. side who said there had been more progress on tech transfer issues than in the months of talks so far. But one of the officials said it's not clear yet whether a deal can be struck by late April, as has been discussed in the press. “It could go to May, June, no one knows," Reuters quoted the official as saying.

The story also clarified that when President Donald Trump said that tariffs will stay in place after a deal, he didn't mean all the tariffs on $250 billion worth of imports. “Some tariffs will stay,” an official said. “There’s going to be some give on that, but we’re not going to get rid of all the tariffs. We can’t.”

No matter how many products have tariff rollbacks, customs lawyer Ted Murphy at Baker & McKenzie blogged March 29 that he doesn't expect the bonds importers have to pay to fall right away. "Even if a deal is reached (and even if duties are eventually rolled back), we do not believe that bond amounts will be lowered very quickly (if at all). As a result, importers will likely be bearing this additional cost well into the future," he wrote.