(Bloomberg) -- U.S. and Chinese senior officials spoke by phone on Thursday in Washington, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Steven Mnuchin spoke to the Chinese earlier, a USTR spokesman confirmed. There were no details released on what was discussed. Reuters reported the phone call earlier.
The phone call was the second time the lead negotiators have talked since U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed in late June on another truce in their year-long trade war. The leaders agreed to restart talks for a trade deal -- which had collapsed in May -- but gave no concrete time-frame to reach a deal.
Mnuchin said earlier this week that if discussions with Chinese officials by phone were productive that he and Lighthizer would travel to Beijing for more meetings.
Trump this week reiterated that he could impose additional tariffs on Chinese imports if he wants. Major sticking points in negotiations include when and by how much China will increase its imports of U.S. farm products, and how exactly the U.S. will ease trade restrictions on Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies Co.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net;Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, James Mayger, Sharon Chen
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