Mubasher: US President Donald Trump said that trade talks with China have “already begun” after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping over the weekend, CNBC reported.

This came after negotiations between Washington and Beijing to end a crippling trade conflict had collapsed last May after President Trump accused China of “reneging” on provisions of a tentative deal.

The renewed talks were being held via phone, Trump said in the Oval Office.

“They’re speaking very much on the phone but they’re also meeting,” Trump noted.

Trump and Xi agreed during a meeting on the sidelines of Group of 20 (G20) summit in Japan to delay imposing new tariffs on one another’s goods and to restart trade talks.

Washington had already levied tariffs on $250 in Chinese goods and threatened to target ultimately all other imports from China.

Meanwhile, Beijing had slapped imposed duties on $110 billion in US goods.

Trump also asserted that any potential deal has to be “somewhat tilted to [the US] advantage.”

“It has to be better for us than for them because they had such a big advantage for so many years,” he said.