By Vivian Salama, Rebecca Ballhaus and Josh Zumbrun 

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. delegation is expected to travel to China for trade talks next week, according to a senior administration official, marking what would be the first in-person talks since the Group of 20 summit last month.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will travel to Shanghai for meetings with China's Vice Premier Liu He and his team to resume formal negotiations following their collapse in May, the person said.

A White House spokesman declined to provide further details about the trip.

Messrs. Lighthizer and Mnuchin stressed in "very strong terms" in recent phone calls with Chinese negotiators that the U.S. wants China to agree to buy more American agricultural products, White House economic adviser Lawrence Kudlow told reporters earlier Tuesday. He said China appears willing to do so as a "good-will gesture."

"They are indicating that they are looking at purchases of agriculture," Mr. Kudlow said. "We hope strongly that China will very soon start buying agriculture products."

President Trump said at a news conference after the G-20 last month that China would start buying a "tremendous amount" of U.S. agricultural products "almost immediately." China at that point had made no official mention of any commitment to buy more agricultural products, and a person familiar with the matter said Chinese President Xi Jinping had made no such promise during his meeting with Mr. Trump at the summit.

Mr. Lighthizer has emphasized that the U.S. wants to "go back to where we were in early May, when we had been moving very nicely, perhaps only 10% left to be negotiated," Mr. Kudlow said.

The last round of face-to-face negotiations between U.S. and Chinese officials took place in Washington in May, and ended in an impasse. Mr. Trump subsequently raised tariff rates on $200 billion of Chinese goods.

In June, Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi met in person at the G-20 in Osaka, Japan, where they agreed to formally resume talks. Mr. Trump said he would put aside plans for additional tariffs on about $300 billion in Chinese imports and said he would ease a U.S. blacklist of China's Huawei Technologies Co. by allowing U.S. companies to sell some components to Huawei if the exports aren't seen as a security risk.

American and Chinese negotiators began speaking again by phone earlier this month, and a face-to-face meeting would give China's leadership positive progress to discuss during their summer conclave at China's Beidaihe beach resort, a Chinese vacation town where Mr. Xi and his top aides retreat in August to plan for the year ahead.

But several major sticking points remain, among them U.S. demands for China to buy more American agricultural and industrial products and to enforce protection of intellectual property. The U.S. also wants China to return to a working draft of the deal that had been negotiated as of early May, but China hasn't yet agreed to return to that version of the agreement, according to a person familiar with the talks.

For its part, China wants the U.S. to remove the tariffs Mr. Trump imposed earlier this year.

The announcement of a trip to China next week comes a day after Mr. Trump met with the chief executives of seven top technology companies at the White House, as the U.S. considers relief for Huawei in the form of licenses that would allow U.S. companies to supply products to world's largest telecommunications equipment company. Mr. Trump said Monday the U.S. agreed to "timely licensing decisions" on doing business with Huawei.

China has taken tentative steps toward increased purchases of U.S. farm products in recent days.

The Chinese state-run news agency, Xinhua, reported Sunday that some Chinese firms have asked U.S. companies about the prices of their agricultural products. These firms have also submitted applications to the State Council, requesting the cabinet remove the tariffs imposed on these goods so that the companies may make these planned purchases, the report said, citing unnamed government agencies.

The report didn't say how much China will eventually buy from the U.S. or when the purchases will happen.

On Tuesday, Mr. Kudlow expressed optimism about where talks were headed. "I'm going to strike a note of hopefulness," he said.

Write to Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com, Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com and Josh Zumbrun at Josh.Zumbrun@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 23, 2019 15:53 ET (19:53 GMT)

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