Mnuchin to Meet China Central Bank Chief in Japan, Treasury Says

(Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will meet with the People’s Bank of China chief during the Group of 20 gathering of finance ministers and central bankers in Japan over the weekend, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday night.

Mnuchin’s meeting with Yi Gang, the governor of the PBOC, will take place as the U.S. and China’s trade conflict becomes increasingly bitter after talks between the two countries broke down last month and President Donald Trump imposed further tariffs on Chinese goods.

Both sides have blamed each other for the impasse, which will be a major theme for finance ministers and central bankers from the G-20 economies to discuss over the weekend in Fukuoka. Mnuchin, along with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, has led the U.S.-China talks, while Yi has been among Chinese delegations.

A department spokesman said that Mnuchin would be participating in “bilateral engagements” from Friday until Sunday. Mnuchin is also scheduled to meet with the finance ministers of other countries including Japan, Germany, France and Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. on Monday said it was “disappointed” that the Chinese used a so-called White Paper and public statements to “pursue a blame game misrepresenting the nature and history of trade negotiations between the two countries,” according to a Treasury-USTR statement.

The White Paper, released by the Beijing government over the weekend with considerable fanfare, asserted that Trump’s decision to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods on May 10 was a breach of an agreement reached by Trump and President Xi Jinping.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Harney in Washington at jharney2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net, ;Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net, Paul Jackson

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