the 1st 9 months of the year the european union continue to be one of the most important trading partners for china with a trade volume of $510000000000.00 u.s. dollars the association of southeast asian nations came in 2nd with a trade volume of $440000000000.00 u.s. dollars that puts the u.s. in 3rd place with $370000000000.00 both sides are trying to alleviate a serious affects of the trade dispute on their economies by returning to negotiations last friday to be agreed upon the 1st partial settlements in the trade disappeared. after more i'm joined by fred beamish chief economist at pantheon macroeconomics in newcastle thank you so much for joining us now china reportedly wants further talks now to discuss the details of the so-called face one deal agreed last friday what's beijing hoping to achieve. yeah it's not that surprising to me that they're still asking for further talks the chinese side has every incentive now to try to just drag things out and don't tell mr trump but spin him along though those year over year numbers probably slightly overstate just how grim the trade situation is in china we're seeing some stabilization at the margins but it is a very weak economy that the chin