The new team of top Chinese negotiators, few of whom come from the commerce ministry, is led by Liu He. Senior Chinese officials and their advisers spoke about economic policy at a three-day Tsinghua University seminar that ended on Monday. Those attending the seminar said that Chinese negotiators had a warm relationship with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, who is a member of the American delegation and a former Goldman Sachs executive. Many of the negotiators representing the United States are more comfortable than their Chinese counterparts with the fine points of trade policy. By contrast, after a series of bureaucratic reorganizations in recent months, many of China’s top trade negotiators are now economists and bankers with little practical experience in trade matters.

Source: New York Times May 03, 2018 16:05 UTC