China envisages commercial discussions with us, but it has conditions

In a potential relaxation of the deadly trade war between China and the United States, Beijing said on Friday that it was planning to speak with the Trump administration after repeated attempts by senior US officials to start negotiations.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that China “assesses” the American offer to speak, but it said that Beijing’s position remained consistent: it will only engage in negotiations if Washington first cancels its prices on Chinese products.

“If the United States does not correct its poor unilateral tariff measures, this means that the United States has no sincerity and will still damage mutual trust between the two parties,” said the ministry.

The signaling of China on its desire to speak intervenes when the prices already seem to have wreaked havoc on Chinese producers. An official report on manufacturing activities in April has shown that factories in China had experienced their clearest monthly slowdown in more than a year.

The two countries fought since President Trump increased the prices on Chinese products to a minimum of 145% last month, while omitting China from a 90 -day break on his prices which he granted to all the other countries. China has responded with its own prices extensions on American products, while preventing certain American companies from doing business in China and restoring exports of critical minerals on which American manufacturers count to do things like semiconductors, drones and cars.

The confrontation, which has doubled as a testaments between Mr. Trump and the first Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, rocked the world markets and accelerated a decoupling of the two biggest economies in the world.