US and Chinese trade delegates are seen in Washington with remote positions By Reuters

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON, Sep 19 (Reuters) – Delegates to the US and Chinese trade negotiations are ready to resume face-to-face talks on Thursday for the first time in almost two months, in a new attempt by the world's two largest economies in save their deep political differences and find a way out of the prolonged trade war.

The negotiations on Thursday and Friday are intended to lay the groundwork for higher-level talks in early October that will determine whether the two countries are working towards a solution or whether they are moving towards the reciprocal imposition of higher tariffs.

A delegation of about 30 Chinese representatives, headed by Deputy Finance Minister Liao Min, was ready to start talks Thursday morning at the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) near the White House. The US side is expected to be headed by Jeffrey Gerrish, deputy director of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

Discussions are likely to focus heavily on agriculture, including the United States' demands for China to substantially increase purchases of US and other agricultural products, a person with knowledge of the planned discussions told Reuters.

Two sessions during the two days will cover agricultural issues, while only one will be devoted to texts dealing with fundamental changes to strengthen China's intellectual property protection and end the forced transfer of technology from the United States to companies Chinese

"The sessions on agriculture will have a disproportionate amount of time," the source said, adding that one of these sessions will also focus on the demand of US President Donald Trump for China to suspend shipments of synthetic opioid fentanyl to U.S.

Trump is eager to offer export opportunities to American farmers, one of his main political strategies that have been affected by China's retaliatory tariffs on US soybeans and other agricultural commodities.

(Information by David Lawder and Andrea Shalal; translated by Tomás Cobos in the Madrid newsroom)

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