WASHINGTON: US and Chinese officials will resume negotiations next week in an effort to resolve the year-long trade dispute between the world’s top two economies, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday.

The meetings in Shanghai on Tuesday and Wednesday will be the first face-to-face discussions since negotiations collapsed in May after President Donald Trump accused Beijing of reneging on its commitments.

Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will lead the US delegation.

The White House said in a statement the talks with Vice Premier Liu He will “cover a range of issues, including intellectual property, forced technology transfer, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, services, the trade deficit and enforcement.” Senior officials have spoken by phone twice in the last two weeks in the bid to jump start the negotiations.

Mnuchin said on CNBC he hopes to make progress but added there are “a lot of issues” pending so he expects another round of talks would follow in Washington.

At a meeting in Japan last month, US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to cease further hostilities in the year-long trade war while the two sides worked to revive ­negotiations.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2019