White House: seeking deal that is 'great for everybody'

China and the United States will continue their trade talks next week in Washington to seek a solution that will be "great for everybody", White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Monday.

Her comment comes days after a senior US delegation led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held talks with senior Chinese economic and trade officials in Beijing last Thursday and Friday.

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro were also on the team.

Sanders said US President Donald Trump had a briefing with the members of the US team on Monday morning.

"The president has a great relationship with President Xi (Jinping). We're working on something that we believe will be great for everybody," she told the daily press briefing.

Sanders said that China's top economic advisor and the vice-premier will be coming to Washington next week to continue the discussion with the US team. While she did not name the name, it's believed that she was referring to Liu He, a vice-premier and a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Mnuchin told reporters in Beijing last Friday that "we're having very good conversations".

China said last Friday that Liu carried out frank, efficient and constructive discussions on China-US economic and trade issues with the US delegation.

It said both parties believe that healthy and stable Sino-US economic and trade relations are very important to the two countries, and both are committed to solving relevant economic and trade issues through dialogue and consultation.

The two sides fully exchanged views on expanding US exports to China, bilateral service trade, two-way investment, the protection of intellectual property rights, and the settlement of tariff and non-tariff measures. In some areas, some consensus has been reached, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

Both parties also recognize that there are still major differences on some issues and they need to continue to intensify their work and make more progress, Xinhua said.

A spokesman of China's Ministry of Commerce said on Friday that during the two-day talks, China made solemn representations to the US side regarding the case of ZTE Corp. The spokesman said the US side said that they would pay attention to these representations and will report China's position back to their president.

The US Commerce Department imposed a seven-year ban on US companies selling equipment and software to ZTE after finding that the Chinese company violated sanctions by selling equipment to Iran.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com