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China In Close Touch With U.S. on Trade as Tariff Deadline Nears

Chinese officials expect President Donald Trump to delay the threatened tariff increase set for Sunday.

China In Close Touch With U.S. on Trade as Tariff Deadline Nears
File photo of Liu He, China’s vice premier, right, shaking hands with Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury secretary, while arriving for a meeting at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington, D.C., U.S. (Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) --

Trade teams from China and the U.S. remain in close touch, a government spokesman said, as a Sunday deadline for higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods approaches.

Gao Feng, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said at a regular briefing in Beijing that he had no new information on the talks to release. Gao repeated that the government is processing applications for tariff waivers for agricultural commodities, a step that would ease the cost of importing of U.S. goods.

Chinese officials expect President Donald Trump to delay the threatened tariff increase set for Sunday, according to people familiar with the discussions, giving more time to negotiate an interim trade deal that both sides continue to insist is close to fruition despite a series of missed deadlines.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, James Mayger

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With assistance from Bloomberg