President Joe Biden’s trade chief held her first in-person meeting with her Chinese counterpart on Friday, the latest sign of easing tensions between the top two economies.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai met with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on the sidelines of a summit in Asia, her office said in a statement. They discussed bilateral trade and emphasized the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the two countries, according to the statement. The meeting occurred at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation minister’s meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Wang and Tai had “candid, professional and constructive” talks on bilateral, regional and multilateral economic and trade issues of mutual concern, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement, which also echoed the US on keeping lines of communication open.

Biden met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday at a seaside resort in Bali for talks that exceeded the low expectations. The US said the two sides would resume cooperation on issues including climate change and food security. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to travel to China early next year to follow up. 

The president has been holding back on a decision to scrap any of more than $300 billion of Trump-era tariffs on imports from China. The duties, which began piling up in 2018, span imports from industrial inputs, such as microchips and chemicals, to consumer merchandise including apparel and furniture.

Some administration officials have said reducing tariffs on household items could help ease a surge in US inflation, but Tai has underlined how the tariffs provide leverage to persuade China to change what the US considers unfair practices.

Former President Donald Trump imposed the duties using section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 after an investigation concluded China stole intellectual property from American companies and forced them to transfer technology. US law states that the tariffs automatically expire four years after they were imposed, unless USTR analyzes their effectiveness and consequences.

USTR earlier this year got hundreds of requests for the tariffs to continue, and announced plans to open this week a public web portal to receive public comments for two months as it undertakes a review of the need for the tariffs.