‘Good talk.’ Li Chenggang made this comment after the first day of the new round of high-level China-U.S. economic and trade consultations. Could this also set the tone for the upcoming meeting between the Chinese and U.S. presidents? Looking at this round of high-level economic and trade talks in New York, both sides’ public statements seem generally positive, focusing on implementing previous agreements and establishing communication mechanisms. However, key issues like tariff truce extensions and rare earth supply didn’t yield clear conclusions publicly, likely leaving them for the presidential meeting to address. 1. China’s Statement China’s main focus remains on traditional economic and trade topics (implementing prior agreements, trade and investment, tariff arrangements, non-sensitive goods lists, etc.), with AI being a newly added discussion point. China’s international trade negotiator Li Chenggang told the media after the meeting: ‘Good talk.’ He also confirmed that trade and investment were discussed, along with dialogues on artificial intelligence. 2. U.S. Statement The U.S. placed greater emphasis on AI. Bensent repeatedly mentioned after the meeting that there were ‘very successful engagements on trade and artificial intelligence,’ and proactively disclosed that the U.S. proposed establishing a ‘U.S.-China AI Dialogue’ mechanism, which includes a notification mechanism for national security-level AI incidents. Greer specifically clarified that chip export controls were not on the agenda for this AI dialogue. The U.S. described this mechanism as a step ‘from opacity to greater transparency’ and stated that both sides agreed to continue discussions. It seems the main axis of the economic and trade consultations still revolves around ‘old issues’ like trade, tariff truce, rare earths/critical minerals, agricultural product purchases, and the establishment of a trade committee. The visible progress so far is mainly at the mechanism level: the AI dialogue mechanism and the trade committee are starting to operate. As for concrete details like tariff reduction lists, truce extension durations, and rare earth export volumes, we’ll have to wait and see if conclusions are reached after the presidential meeting. The AI dialogue mechanism is a new addition and marks the first time this topic has been formally brought to the table by the economic and trade teams. The U.S. is pushing for it more actively, while China has responded and agreed to continue the dialogue. This AI dialogue mechanism seems to serve as a ‘new achievement point’ and a risk management channel in preparation for the upcoming presidential meeting. This post is sponsored by @bitget_zh: ‘Bitget for U.S. Stocks: Instant entry, seamless trading.’