Treasury Department

With Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross unable to seal commitments from China to purchase agricultural and energy products after meeting with Chinese officials this weekend, sources and analysts see fading chances for a negotiated outcome between the United States and China that would forestall tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods from the Trump administration.

The Trump administration’s plan to impose tariffs and investment restrictions on China, announced on Tuesday, caught Beijing by surprise, with China claiming the U.S. move contradicted an agreement reached between the two countries earlier this month.

 “While the U.S. and China have struck a temporary truce, the fate of a pretty overlooked group remains far from certain.”

“On China, Barriers and Tariffs to come down for first time,” he tweeted.

Liu will be in Washington from May 15 to 19 to meet withTreasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and others.

Progress on the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act has been slowed due to a disagreement between the Treasury Department and the Defense Department over whether the bill should allow the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States review outbound investment, sources and a key GOP lawmaker told Inside U.S. Trade this week.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will travel to China “in a few days” to talk trade, Trump said on Tuesday, adding he thinks there is a “very good chance of making a deal” of sorts with Beijing.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) is continuing to rally support for his bill to modernize the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, but the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Mike Crapo (R-ID), still has some apprehension about the bill’s balance.

The Treasury Department has signaled to key lawmakers and stakeholders that it is willing to enact elements of a bill to overhaul the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States through an executive order as part of the Trump administration’s response to China’s intellectual property and tech transfer practices, sources familiar with the internal deliberations say.