U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has sounded optimistic on Tuesday for a good outcome in upcoming trade talks with China and said a superpower conflict between the two nations could be avoided.
Pompeo, speaking by video to the annual Davos summit of big business, was referring to protracted negotiations designed to avert a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to further ramp up tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports by early March.
The U.S.-China trade war has shaken world financial markets and contributed to a slowdown in global economic growth.
On Monday, China reported its weakest annual growth in nearly three decades, hurt by rising U.S. tariffs, and the International Monetary Fund cited the trade war in downgrading its global 2019 outlook for the second time in three months.
