There have been repeated setbacks in efforts to halt a damaging trade war between China and the U.S., but at least talks are — for now — back on.

China says Vice Premier Liu He will visit Washington “in early October,” though it hasn’t specified a date. The U.S. issued a cautious statement confirming the plans, also without saying exactly when talks would happen.

It’s a baby step toward addressing a tariff dispute that is affecting not just China and the U.S. but many of the countries whose trade depends on the health of the world’s two biggest economies. It has preoccupied other nations watching nervously for cues on how the China spat might play out in their own trade frictions with Donald Trump’s administration.

Trump is due to ratchet up tariffs on China on Oct. 1 and again in December. So the pressure is on to find a release valve. Even so, talks have been scheduled before only to fall apart. Things have grown more complicated since May, after Chinese telecoms giant Huawei was put on a blacklist and a tentative truce reached at the Group of 20 summit broke down.

Trump, meanwhile, has a tendency for Tweet storms that veer between threats against China and saying a deal is likely. That flip-flopping makes it harder for Beijing to plot a course. A simple sign of progress would be to set, and announce, an actual date for negotiations.