Disagreement over how to reduce trade deficit, official says

Yuri Gripas | Reuters

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (R) and China’s Vice Premier Wang Yang arrive at the U.S. – China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue to discuss bilateral economic and trade issues in Washington, U.S., July 19, 2017.

The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the talks and requested anonymity, said that the disagreements covered most areas important to the United States, including access to China’s financial services markets, steel overcapacity, trade in autos, Chinese requirements for data localization and ownership caps for foreign firms.

But amid a “frank exchange,” the official said it was important that the Chinese delegation acknowledged the need to reduce U.S. trade deficit and work toward that goal.

For its part, the U.S. Treasury said Wednesday that China acknowledged a shared goal of reducing the trade deficit with the United States during day-long talks.

In a brief statement after the U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross offered few details of the talks.

There was no sign of agreement on major issues involving trade and U.S. demands that China open its markets more to American companies.

“China acknowledged our shared objective to reduce the trade deficit which both sides will work cooperatively to achieve,” the statement said.

—CNBC contributed to this report.