BEIJING: China and the United States are still discussing details about upcoming trade talks in October, making preparations to ensure "positive progress" is made during the negotiations, the Chinese commerce ministry said on Thursday.

The countries' trade negotiators are expected to meet in Washington in about two weeks to determine if they can start to chart a path out of their bruising trade war or are headed for new and higher tariffs on each others' goods.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday a deal to end a nearly 15-month trade war with China could happen sooner than people think and that the Chinese were making big agricultural purchases from the United States, including of beef and pork.

On Thursday, Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng also said Chinese firms have made significant purchases of U.S. soybeans and pork, adding that those purchases were exempt from tariffs.

China and the United States complement each other in agriculture and there is ample room for further "cooperation" as Chinese demand for quality agricultural products is high, Gao said.

"We hope both sides can work together and take tangible actions to create favorable conditions for such cooperation," he said.

Trump spoke a day after delivering a stinging rebuke of China’s trade practices at the United Nations General Assembly, saying he would not accept a "bad deal" in U.S.-China trade negotiations.

When asked about that and Trump's other remarks that he was in no rush to reach a deal with China before the 2020 U.S. elections, Gao reiterated hope that both sides can find a way to compromise.

"We wish the U.S. and China can meet halfway, and on a foundation of equality and mutual respect, find a win-win solution via negotiations. This will benefit China, the U.S., and the whole world," he said.

UNRELIABLE ENTITY LIST

Gao also said China is still going through internal procedures for rolling out a much-anticipated "unreliable entity list", which will be used for punishing companies that have undermined China's national interests.

It's seen by some analysts as a convenient tool for retaliating against U.S. sanctions on Chinese tech firms, including telecommunications giant Huawei.

But Gao said the goal of the list is to protect fair competition, and "not to target any country's companies, organizations or individuals".

"We welcome companies from all countries in the world, including the U.S., to invest and do business in China," he said.

Meanwhile in New YORK

China's top diplomat said on Thursday that China was willing to buy more U.S. products, and said trade talks would yield results if both sides "take more enthusiastic measures" to show goodwill and reduce "pessimistic language" in their trade dispute.

Wang Yi, China's state councillor and foreign minister, said in response to questions fromReuters that the Trump administration had shown goodwill by waiving tariffs on many Chinese products.

"And so, (on) the Chinese side, we are willing to buy more products that are needed by the Chinese market," Wang said on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders.

"We hope both sides can take more enthusiastic measures, reduce pessimistic language and actions. If everyone does this, talks will not only resume, but will proceed and yield results."

The United States and China are preparing for another round of high-level trade talks in early October in Washington to try to find a way out of their nearly 15-month trade war.

CNBC reported on Thursday that the talks are scheduled for Oct. 10-11 in Washington, citing people familiar with the arrangements.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office did not respond to queries about the dates, which are well after celebrations in Beijing for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1.

After two years of wrangling over U.S. demands that China make sweeping changes to protect and end the theft and forced transfer of U.S. intellectual property, the world's two largest economies have heaped hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs on each other's products, roiling financial markets and disrupting global supply chains.

Trump on Wednesday said that a trade deal with China could come sooner than people think, and praised the Chinese purchases.

In his speech to the annual gathering of world leaders on Tuesday, Trump issued a stinging rebuke of China's trade practices and state-led development model. He said that he would not accept a "bad deal.".

Reuters' report of Wang's remarks caused U.S. stocks to pare losses and briefly turn positive on Thursday afternoon, capping selling driven by the impeachment inquiry opened by Democrats in Congress aimed at Trump, a Republican.

Chinese importers last week purchased about 600,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans, or about 10 shiploads, a market analyst said. These could soon grow to 6 million tonnes after new tariff waivers were issued by China, said Li Qiang, chief analyst at Shanghai JC Intelligence Co Ltd.

China purchased about 32 million tonnes of American soybeans in 2017 before imposing retaliatory tariffs last year.

"I would say that mood music, if you will, is very positive going into the negotiations," White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Fox Business Network.

When asked by Reuters if U.S. criticism of China's policies on Muslim minority Uighurs in Xinjiang and Hong Kong political protests could affect trade talks, Wang said: "We hope trade talks can have a loose and good foreign environment."

China has been widely condemned for setting up complexes in Xinjiang that it describes as "vocational training centers" to stamp out extremism and give Uighur people new skills. The United Nations says at least 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained.

Trump called for an end to religious persecution on Monday at a U.S. event on the sidelines of the annual U.N. gathering, which featured a woman whose Uighur father, a scholar, has been imprisoned in China.

The United States led more than 30 countries in condemning what it called China's "horrific campaign of repression" against Muslims in Xinjiang at a second event on Tuesday.

"The Chinese side does not accept any criticism that is not based on facts. Xinjiang has not had any violent incident in three years," Wang said.

Months of sometimes violent demonstrations show no sign of letting up in Hong Kong where protesters are angry about what they see as creeping interference by Beijing in their city's affairs despite a promise of autonomy.

"What is the basis for criticizing China? For Hong Kong, right now, it's the violent actors that are violating the rule of law, that are disrupting public order," Wang said.

But a senior U.S. State Department official said that a firm U.S. stance on human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang should not interfere with trade talks.

"We can walk and chew gum, we can maintain our principal-based position on these things while at the same time working out an agreement that addresses the interests of both sides" on trade, the official said. - Reuters