US willing to consider lowering Trump's tariffs against China

The United States is willing to consider lowering some of the tariffs introduced by former President Donald Trump against China, Treasure Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday, ahead of crucial Chinese President Xi Jinping and Joe Biden's virtual meet.

"The US Trade Representative Katherine Tai has said that we are revisiting the phase one trade deal and recognizing requests to reduce tariffs in some areas. So that's certainly something that's under consideration," Yellen said in an interview with CBS, aired on Sunday.

The Trump administration had imposed various tariffs on steel, aluminium as well as some products from China to counteract Beijing's alleged unfair trade practices which the Chinese side denied.

The high-stakes meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be held virtually on Monday (local time), the first-ever interaction between the two leaders since the former assumed office.

The meeting is likely to cover a range of topics including tensions over China's military activity near Taiwan and human rights, as well as cooperation on climate change, reported The Hill.

In October, an agreement in principle was reached for Biden and Xi to meet virtually sometime before the end of this year. And since then officials had been working for several weeks to schedule the meeting.

The two leaders spoke twice over the phone earlier, the most recent conversation took place in September.

( With inputs from ANI )