US and China commerce and trade chiefs to meet in Washington DC

China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao will meet US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai while visiting the United States, his ministry confirmed on Thursday.

Wang and Raimondo will meet on Thursday, Shu Jueting, Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson, told a regular briefing in Beijing.

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Sources told Reuters the meeting would be in Washington DC, which would make it the first cabinet-level meeting in the US capital between American and Chinese officials of the Biden administration.

Wang has traveled to the US for the 2023 APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, in Detroit from Thursday to Friday, where he will meet Tai.

“The Chinese side will exchange views on China-US relations and issues of common concern,” Shu said.

On Monday, Wang met representatives of American firms in Shanghai, including Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Dow, Merck, and Honeywell, according to the Ministry of Commerce, telling them that “China will continue to welcome US-funded enterprises to develop in China and achieve win-win results.”

China on Sunday declared US chip manufacturer Micron a national security risk, banning the firm from selling its memory chips to key domestic industries.

The ban followed a series of raids on American consultancies operating in China.

Wang’s trip to the US comes after Group of Seven (G7) leaders met in Hiroshima, at which US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders took aim at China over “economic coercion” and said they would “de-risk” without “decoupling” from the world’s second-largest economy in everything from chips to minerals.

“China hopes the G7 will not abuse trade and investment restrictions while saying that they will not seek to decouple from the country,” Shu said.

Wang this month met US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in Beijing, amid speculation about a visit from top US officials after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip in February after the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon that flew over sensitive military sites.

Raimondo and Blinken, as well as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have all expressed interest in visiting China.

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