The United States and China have restarted talks on trade ahead of a meeting between their two leaders later this month, according to The Wall Street Journal.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke by phone on Friday, the Journal reported Monday evening, citing people briefed on the conversation. The United States is demanding that China come up with a clear offer before negotiations on a trade deal can start, but Beijing wants to talk first and then make a firm proposal later, according to the report.

A Treasury spokesman did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on the matter.

The reported talks are the latest attempt to try to find a way out of the trade war between the two economic superpowers that has resulted in heavy tariffs on huge swathes of each other’s exports. But doubts remain over whether they can reach a deal anytime soon.

Friday’s talks didn’t resolve the stalemate between the two sides, but were seen as a positive step toward reaching an understanding, the Journal reported.

President Donald Trump is expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G20 summit later this month in Argentina.

The Trump administration has already slapped tariffs on USD 250 billion in Chinese products since July. The tariffs on USD 200 billion of those goods are set to increase to 25 percent from 10 percent on January 1, which would further escalate the conflict.

China has so far retaliated with tariffs on USD 110 billion of US products and is likely to respond with more if the United States goes ahead with the increase at the start of January.

The United States has imposed tariffs on Chinese products ranging from food seasonings and baseball gloves to network routers and industrial machinery parts. China’s retaliatory tariffs have hit thousands of US exports including meat, alcoholic drinks, chemicals, clothes, machinery, furniture and auto parts.

Former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn left the administration earlier this year in the wake of a fierce disagreement over tariffs on steel and aluminium. Earlier this week, Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive, told the BBC that Trump’s tariffs could hurt the US economy.

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