Donald Trump says US-China trade talks are "going very well"

US President Donald Trump offered an upbeat assessment of US-China tre talks and said he would meet at White House on Friday with leer of Chinese negotiating team. Expectations were low that negotiations would do much to resolve a 15-month tre battle that is weighing on global ecomy.

But as first of an expected two days of talks wrapped up Thursday, Trump told reporters at White House, "We're doing very well ... We're going to see m tomorrow, right here, and it's going very well." 

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Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is leing delegation in 13th round of negotiations with US Tre Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.  world's two biggest ecomies are delocked over US allegations that China steals techlogy and pressures foreign companies to hand over tre secrets as part of a sharp-elbowed drive to become a world leer in vanced industries such as robotics and self-driving cars.

Under Trump, United States has slapped tariffs on more than USD 360 billion worth of Chinese imports and is planning to hit ar USD 160 billion December 15. That would extend import taxes to virtually everything China ships to United States. China has hit back by targeting about USD 120 billion in US goods, focusing on farm products.

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high cost of tariffs and uncertainty over when and how tre war will end have taken an ecomic toll, especially on manufacturing companies. A private survey last week found that US factory output h dropped to its lowest level since 2009, when ecomy was in grips of a deep recession.

"Both sides have been losing, and so has global ecomy," said Myron Brilliant, he of international affairs at US Chamber of Commerce.

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Brilliant, who spoke with both delegations before meetings, sounded optimistic about chances of progress, ting that Beijing has stepped up purchases of US soybeans in a goodwill gesture. He said he hoped a productive meeting would persue Trump ministration to call off or postpone plans next Tuesday to raise tariffs on USD 250 billion of Chinese imports from 25% to 30%.

"We all kw we can't afford a furr escalation of tre war," Brilliant said.

Still, Beijing has been reluctant to make kind of substantive policy reforms that would satisfy Washington. Doing so likely would require scaling back Chinese leers' aspirations to techlogical dominance y see as crucial to ir country's future prosperity. 

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