Building momentum to find solutions: China Daily editorial

The focus on a Chinese delegation's visit to Washington on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for the 13th round of high-level Sino-US trade talks next month shows the international community wants the world's two largest economies to strike a deal early and ease some of the economic woes of the world.

The delegation, led by a vice finance minister, will hold trade talks with its US counterpart in Washington on Thursday to prepare for the meeting between US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He in October.

As the United States and China will hold their first face-to-face trade talks on Thursday since late July, the international community hopes the two sides can pave the way for a breakthrough on such key issues as market entry, protection of investor rights and intellectual property rights, and trade imbalance.

Thursday's talks come in the wake of a rare exchange of goodwill gestures. China first exempted 16 categories of US goods from additional tariffs. In response, the US deferred the planned increase in tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods from Oct 1 to Oct 15, and China followed it up by announcing it will not impose retaliatory tariffs on US pork and soybean.

The reciprocal goodwill gestures, which have been absent since the sudden breakdown of the 11th round of talks in November, are a welcome sign. But they come late, as the trade war has already extracted a heavy price from the two economies.

As the only superpower and the world's largest economy, the US has always tried to change global trends for its narrow ends. It launched the trade war against China with the same purpose. But facing a non-compromising country such as China, which is determined to nullify the effects of its "maximum pressure" tactics, the US suddenly finds itself at a loss.

Nevertheless, it is incumbent on both sides to realize how precarious the current situation is. Since the tariff war has reached its peak, the choice is between wreaking more havoc and returning to reason. And the choice is obvious.

Yet, given their differences over some core issues, it would be too early to say whether the resumption of bilateral contacts would infuse new life into the trade talks and prompt the two sides to reach even an interim deal.

More important, until Washington abandons the illusion of checking China's rise, believes in mutual respect and benefit, and appreciates the complementarities of the two economies, the two sides will not realize the full potential of Thursday's trade talks.