By 
Top U.S. and Chinese officials were due to meet in London on Monday for talks aimed at defusing the high-stakes trade dispute that has widened in recent weeks beyond tit-for-tat tariffs to export controls over goods critical to global supply chains.
Officials from the two superpowers were due to meet at the ornate Lancaster House to try to get back on track with a preliminary agreement struck last month in Geneva that had briefly lowered the temperature between Washington and Beijing.
The talks, which were due to start around 1130 GMT on Monday, come at a crucial time for both economies, with investors looking for some relief from U.S. President Donald Trump’s cascade of tariff orders since his return to the White House in January.
“The next round of trade talks between the U.S. and China will be held in the UK on Monday,” a UK government spokesperson said on Sunday. “We are a nation that champions free trade and have always been clear that a trade war is in nobody’s interests, so we welcome these talks.”
RELATED: Planned US auto tariffs shake global industry as price hikes
Gathering there will be a U.S. delegation led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and a Chinese contingent helmed by Vice Premier He Lifeng.
In Geneva the two sides agreed to reduce steep import taxes on each other’s goods that had had the effect of erecting a trade embargo between the world’s No.
and 2 economies, but U.S. officials in recent weeks accused China of slow-walking on its commitments, particularly around rare earths shipments.
The inclusion of Lutnick, whose agency oversees export controls for the U.S., is one indication of how central rare earths has become. He did not attend the Geneva talks, at which the countries struck a 90-day deal to roll back some of the triple-digit tariffs they had placed on each other.
POSITIVE CONCLUSION
The second round of meetings comes four days after Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke by phone, their first direct interaction since Trump’s January 20 inauguration.
RELATED: US and China reach deal to temporarily slash tariffs, easing slump fears
During the more than one-hour-long call, Xi told Trump to back down from trade measures that roiled the global economy and warned him against threatening steps on Taiwan, according to a Chinese government summary.
