According to US and Beijing leaders and international analysts, an aggressive "step two" trade deal between the US and China seems less feasible as the two sides struggle to reach a tentative "stage one" arrangement.
During a press conference with Chinese vice-president Liu He in October, US President Donald Trump said he expected to dive quickly into the second phase of talks once "phase one" had been completed.
The second phase would focus on a key US complaint that China is stealing American intellectual property effectively by forcing US firms to transfer their technology to Chinese rivals, he said at the time.
But the US presidential election in November 2020, the difficulty of getting the first phase completed, along with the inability of the White House to collaborate with other countries to force China, dimmed prospects for something more aggressive in the near future, sources stated.
The 16-month war on trade with China has dragged down US businesses and farmers into turmoil disrupted global supply chains and affected economies around the world. Failure to tackle a major reason it was started is already eliciting questions about whether the sacrifice was worth it.
Meanwhile, there remain many unaddressed concerns on Beijing's trade practices that many free-market economies see as discriminatory.
Reuters stated on Wednesday that a phase one agreement could slip through next year as the two economic superpowers continue to squabble over Beijing's appeal for a larger tariff rollback.
Beijing officials say they do not plan to merely sit down to discuss a two-phase agreement before the US election unfolds, partially because they want to try to see if Trump wins a coveted second term.
After that, China would rather recede on Trump's political agenda as he switches to domestic issues, the officials said, talking on confidentiality condition. Trump would probably leave other big contentious issues to senior aides, who are likely to continue pressing Beijing on US intellectual property and other related matters,
"We are going to start negotiating phase two as soon as we finish phase one" said a second office in the administration. "As far as time is concerned, when a Phase 2 agreement can be completed, I can't speculate on that."
Originally, the White House carried out ambitious plans to restructure the partnership between the United States and China, including fixing what a 2018 US Trade The representative investigation concluded was Beijing's "unfair and irrational," trade practices.
