A partial new US-China trade agreement would be signed in the middle of this month, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, announcing that he would also then travel to China for continued talks.
Trump’s tweet, sent moments before Wall Street opened for the year’s final trading day, set a calendar date for an event that had hung in uncertainty in the past few weeks as details remained scant.
Washington and Beijing earlier this month announced a “phase pne” trade deal, de-escalating their nearly two-year trade dispute as Trump reduced or canceled some tariffs while Beijing promised to adopt trade reforms and buy more US farm exports.
Photo: AP
The text has yet to be made public pending what US officials say is a largely technical review.
“I will be signing our very large and comprehensive Phase One Trade Deal with China on January 15,” Trump tweeted. “The ceremony will take place at the White House. High level representatives of China will be present.”
US and Chinese officials have said the agreement includes protections for intellectual property, food and farm goods, financial services and foreign exchange, and a provision for dispute resolution.
Under the new deal, China has committed to a minimum of US$200 billion in increased purchases over the next two years from US manufacturers, farmers, energy producers and service providers, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.
Trump said he would travel to Beijing to continue negotiations “at a later date” — showing willingness to pursue talks that have acrimoniously broken down more than once and left both sides to salvage a partial deal.
While the detente put a stop to further deterioration in the trade dispute, it leaves many of the barriers erected so far in place.
Trump canceled plans to impose tariffs on US$160 billion in Chinese merchandise on Dec. 13 — including hot consumer items such as mobile phones — but punishing US tariffs remain for about US$250 billion in Chinese-made goods, including machinery and many electronic items.
The two economic powers have been locked in a bruising trade dispute since the first half of 2018 that has roiled the global economy and helped send the manufacturing sector into decline.
Observers say in that time, the trade dispute might have ushered in a long-term decoupling of trade relations between the world’s two largest economies.
Americans cut merchandise purchases from China substantially last year, while their appetite for Mexican goods has grown.
The yawning US goods deficit with China fell 14.7 percent in the 10 months through October last year, but rose 29 percent with Mexico, official US figures showed.
What the two sides can accomplish in a potentially thornier “phase two” of negotiations — which could touch on Beijing’s sweeping market interventions and industrial subsidies — remains unclear.
US Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director Peter Navarro on Tuesday told CNBC that the phase one agreement was only one plank in the Trump trade agenda, which encompasses other newly negotiated agreements in North America and Asia.
“Next year ... we’re going to try to get something going with Great Britain, Vietnam, Europe and anybody else who wants to fairly trade with the United States,” he said.
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