Sino-US trade talks seen as key to stability

The ongoing trade talks between China and the United States in France carry great importance for sustaining the hard-won stability achieved by the world's two largest economies over the past year, analysts said.

To this end, the analysts said, both Beijing and Washington need to act in good faith and meet each other halfway to seek more common ground rather than creating new obstacles, and this will serve the interests of both countries and help the world economy.

Vice-Premier He Lifeng is leading the Chinese delegation in discussions with his US counterparts on economic and trade issues of mutual concern, from Saturday to Tuesday.

The talks represent the sixth round of bilateral economic and trade consultations following previous rounds conducted between May and October last year that helped pull the relationship back from the brink of escalating trade conflict.

The previous trade talks reached considerable points of consensus, but some of these understandings have not yet been transformed into formal outcomes, a situation that requires joint efforts to address, said Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Zhou also said that the current talks might focus on how to properly handle US unilateral measures and consolidate mutual trust.

The Trump administration has sought to maintain leverage through alternative mechanisms after the US Supreme Court struck down the administration's broad presidential tariff authorities last month. Just days before the talks began in France, Washington launched Section 301 trade investigations into various trading partners, including China.

The new round of trade talks will help "set the tone for the future direction of US trade policy" after the Supreme Court decision, said Cassey Lee, senior fellow and coordinator of the Regional Economic Studies Programme at the ISEASYusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

A report in February from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that roughly 90 percent of the economic burden from the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration last year was shouldered by US consumers and businesses, as opposed to foreign exporters.

He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing, said that "the common interests between China and the US are immense — far exceeding the tariff game". Both nations have much to gain from collaboration in frontier technologies such as open-source artificial intelligence, robotics and green transition, he added.

Last week, national lawmakers approved the outline of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), vowing continued openness to global businesses, including those from the US, that seek to participate in the country's development.

China has a stable and predictable environment for business investment and cooperation, but it requires genuine commitment from the US to ensure that this can be extended into their shared areas of cooperation in manufacturing, technology industries and services, said Daryl Guppy, an international financial technical analyst.

Yang Hanin Hong Kong and Xin Xinin Sydney contributed to this story.