A former top U.S. trade negotiator said talks with China for a trade deal had made significant progress despite recent setbacks and an agreement would eventually be reached.
Clete Willems, deputy director of the White House’s National Economic Council until April, said China’s leadership includes figures that the U.S. hopes will steer the country to more market-oriented policies to underpin a trade pact.
“We believe there is a strong contingent of reformers in China that want change,” Mr. Willems said via video link at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
