China and the US fought a bruising trade war for much of 2025, with reciprocal tariffs reaching triple digits at one point and export restrictions threatening to wreck global supply chains for critical minerals. China’s commerce ministry said in a statement on Friday that officials in Paris would “conduct consultations on economic and trade issues of mutual concern”, without giving further details about the content of the talks. Washington has said Trump will visit China from March 31 to April 2, although Beijing has yet to confirm those dates in line with its usual practice. Trump and Xi could potentially meet three times this year, including at a China-hosted APEC summit in November and a US-hosted G20 summit in December that could yield more tangible progress. The US-Israeli war on Iran will likely come up at the Paris talks, especially in reference to the spike in oil prices and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which China gets 45 percent of its oil. Bessent on Thursday night announced a 30-day waiver of sanctions to allow the sale of Russian oil stranded at sea in tankers, a move to raise supplies.