BEIJING—Faced with fresh threats of tariffs from Washington, China is considering declining the Trump administration’s offer of trade talks later this month, according to officials with knowledge of the discussions. Meanwhile, China’s leaders are continuing to court U.S. businesses to get them to lobby against the Trump tariffs. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, above, invited China’s Mr. Liu for talks later this month. In response to the U.S.’s looming $200 billion in tariffs, China has vowed to place commensurate tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods and take other unspecified measures to retaliate. Another issue complicating any further talks with Washington: Chinese officials regularly complain that they don’t know whether any U.S. officials are empowered to cut a deal.

Source: Wall Street Journal September 16, 2018 16:30 UTC