By Lingling Wei in Beijing and Bob Davis in Washington 

Chinese and U.S. negotiators are drawing up a road map for talks to try to end their trade impasse ahead of planned meetings between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at multilateral summits in November, said officials in both nations.

The planning represents an effort on both sides to keep a spiraling trade dispute -- which already has involved billions of dollars in tariffs and comes with the threat of hundreds of billions more -- from torpedoing the U.S.-China relationship and shaking global markets.

Scheduled midlevel talks in Washington next week, which both sides announced on Thursday, will pave the way for the November meetings. A nine-member delegation from Beijing, led by Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen, will hold meetings with U.S. officials led by the Treasury undersecretary, David Malpass, on Aug. 22 and Aug. 23.

The negotiations are aimed at finding a way for both sides to address the trade disputes, the officials said, and could lead to more rounds of talks in the next couple of months.

The talks represent a clear move by Beijing to get back on track relations with Washington that were cordial in the early months of the Trump administration and involved coordination of measures to rein in North Korea. Those relations have soured in recent months, especially after Mr. Trump's initial tariffs on Chinese imports, which he said were designed to punish Beijing for alleged intellectual-property violations and technology theft. The resulting tit-for-tat of trade threats and retaliation has hit China's currency and stock markets.

Mr. Xi has instructed his lieutenants to try to stabilize the bilateral relationship as soon as possible, according to advisers to the Chinese government. A prolonged and broader conflict with Washington, many officials and experts in China say, threaten to derail the Chinese leader's plans to remake the economy and transform China into a global superpower.

The talks, though, could also get derailed, especially as the U.S. continues to levy tariffs. So far the U.S. has imposed levies on $34 billion in Chinese goods, with tariffs on another $16 billion in goods scheduled to take effect next week. China has matched those tariffs dollar-for-dollar. The Trump administration is also divided over the best way to negotiate a deal.

In the meantime, U.S. officials have said the nation's strong economy is giving Washington leverage in the negotiations.

"I think investors are moving out of China because they don't like the economy, and they're coming to the USA because they like our economy," said Lawrence Kudlow, the White House's top economic official, at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. "Right now, their economy looks terrible."

But there are differing views on how to respond. The Treasury and Mr. Kudlow's National Economic Council, which are more sympathetic to the views of Wall Street and the U.S. business community, have been putting together a pared-down list of requests to China that they think could serve as a basis for a deal. But the U.S. trade representative's office, which is in charge of tariffs, wants to hold off on negotiations, arguing that additional levies would give the U.S. more bargaining power by October, said people briefed on the discussions.

China's Foreign Ministry didn't respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Treasury declined to comment ahead of next week's talks.

So far, President Trump hasn't decided between the two camps, said U.S. officials. Rather, he is letting each pursue its agenda and will weigh in when there is a deal on the table, U.S. officials said.

Write to Lingling Wei at lingling.wei@wsj.com and Bob Davis at bob.davis@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 17, 2018 14:56 ET (18:56 GMT)

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