China and the U.S. reached a modest breakthrough in their standoff over trade, saying they will hold lower-level talks later this month on the spiraling dispute. China’s Commerce Ministry said Thursday that a vice minister will travel to the U.S. at an unspecified date, at the invitation of the Treasury Department, to discuss trade issues. A senior U.S. government official confirmed the talks and said: “We expect to discuss steps to achieve a more balanced trading relationship.” The new round of discussions would be the first since May, when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He declared a temporary truce to the threats to impose tariffs on each other’s goods. Shortly afterward, President Trump declared that the tariffs would go ahead. Since then, both sides have slapped penalties on tens of billions of dollars in each other’s goods, with the U.S. ready to move ahead on […]