PARIS, March 15 (Reuters) - Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials held "remarkably stable" talks in Paris on Sunday that touched on potential areas of agreement in agriculture, critical minerals and managed trade for U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider in Beijing, two sources familiar with the talks said. The sources told Reuters that the "candid and constructive" Paris talks led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng would set in motion possible "deliverables" for Trump's trip to China to meet with Xi at the end of March.
"All these meetings were to create stability, and today was remarkably stable," one of the sources said of the talks.
The two sides discussed the establishment of new formal mechanisms to help manage trade and investment between the world's two largest economies that may be considered by Trump and Xi in Beijing, the sources said. Technical talks on the proposed U.S.-China "Board of Trade" and "Board of Investment" were expected on Monday. One of the sources said that the Board of Trade was the more developed of the two proposals, and would be aimed at finding products and sectors where the U.S. and China could increase trade in a balanced way without compromising each other's national security or critical supply chains.
The Board of Investment would not set broad investment policies but would address "discrete investment issues" that may arise between the countries, the source said.
