President Donald Trump has publicly dismissed China's claims he had agreed to remove tariffs on Chinese goods entering the United States.
"They'd like to have a rollback. I haven't agreed to anything," said Trump at the White House. "China would like to get somewhat of a rollback, not a complete rollback because they know I won't do it."
The White House has refused to comment on Trump's remarks for the past days. Trump's denial of any tariff mitigation was preceded by statements from Peter Navarro, Assistant to the President, and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, who first denied the reports of a tariff rollback. He said, "the only person who can make (the decision to roll back tariffs) is Donald J. Trump."
The flagging hopes for a limited phase one interim trade deal between the U.S. and China, which weakened after both sides delayed the deal signing to December, received a shot in the arm last week with China saying both countries have agreed to simultaneously cancel some existing tariffs on each another's goods.
On Nov. 9, China's Ministry of Commerce revealed Beijing has agreed with Washington to lift existing trade tariffs between the two countries in phases. Both countries are now also closer to a limited phase one trade deal after constructive negotiations over the past two weeks, said Gao Feng, a spokesperson for the ministry.
China is also insisting on one important condition for a limited trade agreement. Feng said this demand is the U.S. and China must remove the same amount of tariffs at the same time.
The news from China comes on the heels of reports last week that the meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping has been postponed to December from November following the ongoing riots in Chile where both leaders are to have met. Xi and Trump were to have signed the limited phase one agreement during the APEC summit in Santiago that was to have taken place from November 16 to 17.
Chile, however, is having second thoughts about abandoning its hosting of the APEC summit since it made this decision last week. News reports began circulating Chile is proposing holding the summit in both Santiago and the United States.
Media reports citing a senior U.S. official claim the U.S. and Chilean governments are now discussing co-hosting the APEC summit in the United States in January 2020. Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo had spoken to him in Bangkok and told him the U.S. was thinking of hosting the APEC summit in January.
"But I have informed the American officials who were in Bangkok that we don't think it's a good idea," said Abdullah.
Analysts, however, remain doubtful a phase one trade deal will effectively tackle the core U.S. demands. These include an end to China's forced technology transfers; an end to China subsidizing its state-owned enterprises and stronger intellectual property protection for Americans in China.
