China likely will offer to import more U.S. goods during negotiations in Washington next week as the two sides see one of the best ways to avert an all-out trade war is for Beijing to buy American.

Sufficient progress was made when a senior U.S. delegation went to Beijing last week, say the two sides, that China is dispatching its chief economic envoy, Liu He, to Washington in the days ahead, though China hasn’t confirmed his arrival date. Mr. Liu is expected to come with a shopping list of sorts, specific ideas for purchases designed to narrow the two country’s vast trade imbalance.

Chinese officials expressed willingness to work with the U.S. to reduce the trade gap during last week’s talks, but they didn’t agree to the U.S. demand that China cut its trade advantage by $200 billion by the end of 2020. Last year the U.S. ran a $375 billion merchandise trade deficit with China and a $337 billion shortfall when counting services.

Settling the dispute is taking on a degree of urgency as the tensions between Washington and Beijing are already affecting trade flows between the two nations. Since the U.S. first threatened tariffs on Chinese imports in January, U.S. exports have faced growing hurdles when entering the Chinese market: automobiles are being held up at Chinese customs, pork exports are facing tough new inspections, and farm goods, including soybeans and other farm products, are threatened to be hit with retaliatory tariffs.

Reducing the trade imbalance is an area both nations have chosen as a priority. President Donald Trump associates the deficit with lost U.S. jobs. Beijing officials say they need to cut China’s reliance on exports as a way to build a modern economy focused more on consumption.