Chinese leader Xi Jinping has held a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump, state media reported.
The talks took place at Trump’s request, Xinhua news agency reported, without giving details.
The White House has not yet reported on the conversation.
The day before, Politico wrote that Donald Trump believes that the conversation with Xi Jinping will help reset trade talks between the countries in tension. And a person familiar with the trade talks said Trump is “obsessed with the idea of talking to Xi.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce said this week that the Trump administration has imposed “discriminatory restrictive measures”, including cancelling Chinese student visas in the United States.
In early May, China and the U.S. agreed to a 90-day moratorium on significant mutual trade import duty increases announced earlier by both sides. The countries agreed to reduce reciprocal duties by 115 per cent, with the US reducing duties by 145 per cent to 30 per cent and China by 125 per cent to 10 per cent.
The White House said that the US and Chinese governments, recognising “the importance of the bilateral economic and trade relationship”, decided to reduce duties effective May 14.
Markets reacted to reports of the agreements with a rise in quotations.
In April, US President Donald Trump announced the imposition of trade duties on imported goods from almost every country in the world. He subsequently suspended the imposition of tariffs on all countries, reducing the base duty to 10 per cent, making an exception only for China, for which he raised duties.
The PRC also responded by raising import tariffs.
The US administration explained the increase in duties against China by the imbalance in trade with this country, insufficient, in Washington’s opinion, efforts of Beijing to combat the export of the synthetic drug fentanyl, “disrespect that China shows to world markets”. China, for its part, said it would not make concessions and would defend its interests.