Progress in U.S.-China trade talks "very encouraging": expert

The progress made in the latest round of trade talks between the United States and China is "very encouraging," said an American scholar on Monday.
 
The trade talks have "irreversibly left the point of failure in the rear view mirror" though "the extent of the success remains to be seen," Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, told Xinhua via email.
 
"It is a confirmation of the trust and goodwill that has been engendered and this bodes favorably for win-win outcomes in the weeks -- if not days -- ahead," he said.
 
In retrospect, last week's meetings in Beijing were "critically important," he said. "They ensured that the talks had crossed a threshold point from which failure was inconceivable."
 
The White House had threatened to increase the tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on the 200 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese imports into the country if the two sides fail to reach an agreement on the solution of trade frictions before March 1.
 
Ahead of the deadline, Chinese and U.S. negotiators on Sunday wrapped up the latest round of trade talks with substantial progress on specific issues in Washington.
 
U.S. President Donald Trump later tweeted that he "will be delaying" the increase of tariffs on Chinese imports scheduled for March 1, citing "very productive" trade talks between the two countries.