US-China working groups on economy, finance meet as future in doubt under Donald Trump

Dialogue set up last year as Biden and Xi sought to manage bilateral differences could fall off amid anticipated revival of trade war

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US president-elect Donald Trump speaks at his estate Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday. Photo: AP

Published: 3:45am, 17 Dec 2024Updated: 4:48am, 17 Dec 2024

The US and China held what could be their last working-group meetings on economics and finance, a month before Donald Trump’s return to the White House amid an anticipated revival of the two superpowers’ trade war.

The US Treasury on Monday announced that senior officials from Washington and Beijing discussed economic and financial issues in two working group meetings in recent days.

The economic working group convened on the sidelines of the Group of 20 deputies’ meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 12, according to a Treasury read-out, and was co-led by Jay Shambaugh, Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs, and Liao Min, China’s vice-minister of finance.

Treasury said the US voiced concerns about the mainland’s “nonmarket practices and industrial overcapacity” and their impact on American workers and companies as well as Chinese firms’ alleged support for Russia’s defence industrial base during the Ukraine war.

The Chinese finance ministry’s read-out of the meeting said it clarified Beijing’s position to US officials on economic and trade issues while raising its own concerns about American trade restrictions against China.