Last-minute negotiations between the two countries' economic leaders in New York ahead of the U.S.-China summit

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ko Il-hwan = Ahead of the summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the two countries are engaging in last-minute negotiations to coordinate key issues.

The Financial Times (FT) reported on the 15th (local time) that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and Deputy Prime Minister Heifeng of the State Council will meet in New York on the 20th.

On the U.S. side, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamison Greer is also scheduled to attend the negotiations.

The meeting is expected to be the last negotiation between the economic leaders of the two countries before the summit between President Trump and President Xi to be held at the White House on the 24th.

The two countries are still unable to narrow down their differences on major issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) and rare earths.

In particular, the two countries are showing differences in their positions ahead of the expiration of the one-year deadline for the trade war truce agreed upon by President Trump and President Xi during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in October last year.

The United States is in favor of extending the ceasefire for six months, but China is known to be opposing it, demanding that it be extended for the remainder of President Trump's term.

The United States believes that China is not fully implementing the rare earth-related agreements promised in trade negotiations.

In particular, the United States is also demanding that China relax restrictions on rare earth exports to Japan in these negotiations.

This is because China's restrictions on rare earth exports to Japan are affecting the supply chain not only in Japan, its ally, but also in the United States.

AI is also expected to be a major agenda item at this New York summit.

China announced in May that President Trump and President Xi had agreed to establish a dialogue channel to discuss AI issues.

President Trump also said that the leaders of the two countries discussed 'safeguards' for AI at the time, but no high-level talks related to AI were held between the two countries afterward.

The specific operation plan of the 'Trade Committee' agreed upon by President Trump and President Xi is also a subject of discussion between the two countries.

The Trade Committee will be responsible for selecting items for which tariffs can be reduced in areas that are not sensitive to security.