US, China launch high level trade talks

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters): The United States and China were set to try again on Wednesday to dig out from a damaging trade war with a new round of high-level talks aimed at bridging deep differences over China's intellectual property and technology transfer policies.

Cabinet-level officials, led by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, are due to begin two days of talks at 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) next door to the White House.

They come with about a month left in a 90-day trade truce agreed in December by President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

People familiar with the talks and trade experts watching them say that, so far, there has been little indication that Chinese officials are willing to address core US demands to protect American intellectual property rights and end policies that Washington says force US companies to transfer technology to Chinese firms.

The US complaints, along with accusations of Chinese cyber theft of US trade secrets and a systematic campaign to acquire US technology firms, were used by the Trump administration to justify punitive US tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports.