U.S.-China trade deal in sight after progress in high-level talks
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - The United States and China yesterday said they made progress in talks aimed at defusing a nearly 16-monthlong trade war that has harmed the global economy, and U.S. officials said a deal could be signed this month.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry yesterday said the world’s two largest economies had reached “consensus on principles” during a “serious and constructive” telephone call between their main trade negotiators.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped to sign an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a U.S. location, perhaps in the farming state of Iowa, which will be a key battleground state in the 2020 presidential election.
“China wants to make the deal very much,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday evening. “I don’t like to talk about deals until they happen, but we’re making a lot of progress.”
U.S. and Chinese negotiators have been racing to finalize a text of a ‘phase one’ agreement for Trump and Xi to sign this month, a process clouded by wrangling over U.S. demands for a timetable of Chinese purchases of U.S. farm products.
A critical date is Dec. 15, when new U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports such as laptops, toys and electronics are set to kick in. Both the United States and China have an interest in reaching a deal and averting those tariffs.
U.S. and Chinese negotiators had made “enormous progress” toward finalizing the phase one agreement, although the deal was not yet 100% complete, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters on Friday.