Trade talks between China and the U.S. are still expected to continue despite the arrest in Canada’s Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant of Huawei Technologies’ CFO Meng Wanzhou.

Top Chinese and U.S. trade negotiators have discussed plans for renewed trade talks, the first time senior officials from both countries have had official contact since the Presidents of China and the United States reached a truce on tariffs on December 1. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer discussed the plans over the phone in a sign that the two nations still want to engage in trade talks. In a brief statement, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said the three men exchanged views on the next step on the road map towards consensus. China plans to send a 30-member delegation to the U.S. soon to continue the talks. U.S. President Trump said the Chinese government was once again buying large quantities of U.S. soybeans. Chinese importers have bought 1.5 million to 2 million metric tons in a 24 hour period for delivery in the first quarter of 2019, the U.S. Soybean Export Council said. The country last year bought about 60% of U.S. soybean exports in deals valued at more than USD12 billion.

But Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan said China will maintain its “strategic focus” and will not abandon its economic model. He added that China would strive to be a leader in ‘economic globalization’ and pledged support for the multilateral economic system. Wang was making a rare appearance at a “non-government” event, the Imperial Springs International Forum in Guangzhou, which was attended by 200 international guests, including Yukio Hatoyama, former Prime Minister of Japan and Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada.

“We still have to continue the trade talks,” said Wu Xinbo, Director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University. “Meng’s arrest is an individual case. Trade is the bigger issue.” But Wu said that Meng’s case was likely to be put on the table during the negotiations and that China would be more “clear-eyed” about the U.S. desire to contain the country’s technological rise. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer insisted that the arrest should not affect the negotiations, saying: “This is a criminal justice matter. It is totally separate from anything I work on or anything that trade policy people in the administration work on.” Scott Kennedy, Deputy Director of the Freeman Chair in China studies and Director of the project on Chinese business and political economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he did not expect China to use the case as an excuse to stop negotiations on the grounds of “bad faith” from the U.S. He said the talks should not be overshadowed by individual cases and should focus on the bigger picture. U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters that he would intervene in the case at the U.S. Justice Department if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal with China.

Meanwhile, China has agreed to lower import tariffs on U.S.-made cars from 40% to 15% for three months. American car exports to China fell sharply after tariffs were imposed in early July in retaliation for Trump’s 25% tariffs on USD34 billion of Chinese imports. The export value of vehicles in August stood at just over USD460 million, down 55% on the same monthly figure for 2017. The year-to-date value for 2018, around USD5.6 billion, was down just over 30% compared with export numbers for 2017 through October. The Chinese market constitutes just under 11% of global exports of U.S. motor vehicles. Tesla is set to be a major beneficiary from the reduction in tariffs. The company immediately announced that it would cut the prices of its cars in China.

Pascal Lamy, former Director General of the WTO between 2005 and 2013, does not believe that “there is any serious problem” with the Chinese trade surplus with the U.S. It was 10% of gross national product (GNP) 10 years ago and it is 1% now. Imports have also increased more than exports in the past decade, which is what was expected to happen. The U.S. has a structural trade deficit that will remain in place as long as its citizens consume more than the average consumers on the planet and save less than the rest. This is not a trade-related issue and, therefore, U.S. President Donald Trump will achieve nothing imposing tariffs on Chinese products.”

The ongoing trade war between China and the United States will continue in non-tariff form and also break out into non-trade areas even if Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump reach a deal by March’s deadline, Lian Ping, Chief Economist of the Bank of Communications (BOCOM) said. “No matter if relations are tense or not, their struggles will continue over the long run.” It is just the tip of the iceberg hiding deeper, underlying tensions between the two countries and the real problem lies in their fraught bilateral relations, Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma said. “Even if the trade war is over, the complicated relationship between China and the U.S. will not be changed in the next 20 years,” Jack Ma said. “We need to bear in mind that China has emerged stronger after meeting every challenge,” he added.