Afternoon Coffee: U.S.-China Trade Meetings Planned for January; Infrastructure Spending Rises

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that U.S.-China trade talks to expand on a tariff truce are planned for January, Bloomberg News reports. Since the tariff truce began this month after the G20 summit, trade talks have been done by phone Mnuchin told Bloomberg in an interview. “We’re in the process of confirming the logistics of several meetings and we’re determined to make sure that we use the time wisely, to try to resolve this,” Mnuchin said. Both sides are now focused on trying “to document an agreement” by a March 1 deadline for their current tariffs truce to run out. “We expect there will be meetings in January,” he said.

Infrastructure and Great Recession

State and local infrastructure spending is up, fueled by sales taxes from consumer spending but not reaching the levels before the Great Recession took its toll, The Wall Street Journal reports. “In all, state and local construction spending was up 9.7% in October from a year earlier to an annual rate of $288 billion, still shy of the $296 billion pace reached in March 2009,” the WSJ reports.

AI Holds $300 Billion Opportunity for Retailers?

A study of how 400 retailers are using artificial intelligence indicates a value proposition of $300 billion in benefits, Supply Chain Dive reports. The study of 400 global retailers from the Capgemini Research Institute benchmarks the latest trends in adopting AI as well as looking at the millions in savings from supply chain efficiency.