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Trump has said that the March 1 deadline for China trade talks is not a "magical" date, suggesting that he is open to pushing off the deadline. The U.S. President also mentioned that the trade talks with China are going well. Tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are scheduled to rise to 25 percent from 10 percent by March 1 if the world's two largest economies do not settle their trade dispute. However, Trump has suggested several times that he would be open to postponing the deadline. The negotiations followed a week of talks in Beijing that ended last week without a deal but which officials said had yielded progress on some key issues. The United States as part of a trade deal was seeking to secure a pledge from China that it will not devalue its yuan currency. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had told Reuters last October that currency issues must be part of U.S.-China trade negotiations and that Chinese officials told him that further depreciation of the yuan was not in their interests. Spokesmen for the U.S. Trade Representative's office, which is leading the talks, and the U.S. Treasury, which leads currency policy, could not immediately be reached for comment. Two days of negotiations between deputy-level officials began on Tuesday, led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish on the U.S. side. Higher-level talks involving Mnuchin and led by USTR Robert Lighthizer, are expected to begin on Thursday. The White House said in a statement issued late on Monday that this week's talks were aimed at "achieving needed structural changes in China that affect trade between the United States and China. The two sides will also discuss China's pledge to purchase a substantial amount of goods and services from the United States." Trump emphasized that progress was being made, saying "the talks with China on trade have gone very, very well."
