Trade Talks End Early, US Team Heads Back

The trade talks between Chinese and US negotiators ended a little earlier than expected, but the officials posed for a group photo before the US trade officials left for the airport without speaking to reporters.

This is the first face-to-face talks since agreeing to a trade war truce last month, but the short meeting in Shanghai was overshadowed by a Twitter tirade from President Donald Trump.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with Vice Premier Liu He on Wednesday morning.

The group then went behind closed doors for around four hours in the first face-to-face negotiations since Trump agreed to a truce with President Xi Jinping in June following a breakdown a month earlier.

Lighthizer and Mnuchin had arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday and joined Chinese officials for dinner and informal discussions – just as Trump took to Twitter to lambast what he said was a lack of willingness by Beijing to broker a fair deal. (AFP)